Systems, apparatus, and methods to improve watermark detection in acoustic environments

ABSTRACT

An example apparatus includes at least one processor circuitry to execute or instantiate instructions to identify a media file is scheduled to be accessed by a media device within a first time period after a publishing of the media file was published by a media provider; select a first symbol to be inserted at a first symbol position and a second symbol to be inserted at a second symbol position to identify an access of the media file is to be accessed by the media device within the first time period, the first symbol position in a first bit sequence, the second symbol position in a second bit sequence; encode the first bit sequence in the media file on a first encoding layer of a multilayered watermark, and encode the second bit sequence in the media file on a second encoding layer of the multilayered watermark.

RELATED APPLICATION

This patent arises from a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser.No. 17/479,918 (now U.S Pat. No. ______), which was filed on Sep. 20,2021. U.S. patent application Ser. No. 17/479,918 is hereby incorporatedherein by reference in its entirety. Priority to U.S. patent applicationSer. No. 17/479,918 is hereby claimed.

FIELD OF THE DISCLOSURE

This disclosure relates generally to media watermarking and, moreparticularly, to systems, apparatus, and methods to improve watermarkdetection in acoustic environments.

BACKGROUND

Watermarks can be embedded or otherwise included in media to enableadditional information to be conveyed with the media. For example, audiowatermarks can be embedded and/or included in the audio data/signalportion of a media stream, file, and/or signal to convey data, such asmedia identification information, copyright protection information,etc., associated with the media. These watermarks enable monitoring ofthe distribution and/or use of media, such as by detecting watermarkspresent in television broadcasts, radio broadcasts, streamed multimedia,etc., to identify the particular media being presented to viewers,listeners, users, etc. The information can be valuable to advertisers,content providers, and the like.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an example media monitoring systemincluding an example watermark encoder to embed watermarks in media, anexample watermark decoder to decode the watermarks, and an exampleaudience measurement entity to associate access(es) of the media anddemographics of users associated with the access(es).

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of an example implementation of the examplewatermark encoder of FIG. 1 .

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of an example implementation of the examplewatermark decoder of FIG. 1 .

FIG. 4 is a block diagram of an example implementation of the exampleaudience measurement entity of FIG. 1 .

FIG. 5 depicts example watermarks in media at different examplefrequency layers.

FIG. 6 depicts an example dense single-layer watermark and an exampledense multilayer watermark.

FIG. 7 depicts a first example sparse multilayer watermark and a secondexample sparse multilayer watermark.

FIG. 8 depicts an example single-layer watermark including examplesymbols corresponding to an example media identifier and an exampletimestamp.

FIG. 9 depicts an example multilayer watermark including example symbolscorresponding to an example media identifier, an example timestamp, andexample error-checking data.

FIG. 10 is a flowchart representative of example machine readableinstructions and/or example operations that may be executed by exampleprocessor circuitry to implement the example watermark encoder of FIGS.1 and/or 2 , the example watermark decoder of FIGS. 1 and/or 3 , and/orthe example audience measurement entity of FIGS. 1 and/or 4 to associateaccess of media and demographics of user(s) associated with device(s).

FIG. 11 is a flowchart representative of example machine readableinstructions and/or example operations that may be executed by exampleprocessor circuitry to implement the example watermark encoder of FIGS.1 and/or 2 to encode media with sparse watermarks to indicate the mediais accessed within a time period after publishing of the media.

FIG. 12 is a flowchart representative of example machine readableinstructions and/or example operations that may be executed by exampleprocessor circuitry to implement the example watermark encoder of FIGS.1 and/or 2 , the example watermark decoder of FIGS. 1 and/or 3 , and/orthe example audience measurement entity of FIGS. 1 and/or 4 to associatedemographics of user(s) with accessed media based on at least one ofmedia identifiers or timestamps.

FIG. 13 is a flowchart representative of example machine readableinstructions and/or example operations that may be executed by exampleprocessor circuitry to implement the example watermark encoder of FIGS.1 and/or 2 to encode media with multilayer watermarks to convey at leastone of media identifiers or timestamps.

FIG. 14 is a block diagram of an example processing platform includingprocessor circuitry structured to execute the example machine readableinstructions and/or the example operations of FIGS. 10, 11, 12 , and/or13 to implement the example watermark encoder of FIGS. 1 and/or 2 .

FIG. 15 is a block diagram of an example processing platform includingprocessor circuitry structured to execute the example machine readableinstructions and/or the example operations of FIGS. 10 and/or 12 toimplement the example watermark decoder of FIGS. 1 and/or 3 .

FIG. 16 is a block diagram of an example processing platform includingprocessor circuitry structured to execute the example machine readableinstructions and/or the example operations of FIGS. 10 and/or 12 toimplement the example audience measurement entity of FIGS. 1 and/or 4 .

FIG. 17 is a block diagram of an example implementation of the processorcircuitry of FIGS. 14, 15 , and/or 16.

FIG. 18 is a block diagram of another example implementation of theprocessor circuitry of FIGS. 14, 15 , and/or 16.

FIG. 19 is a block diagram of an example software distribution platformto distribute software to client devices associated with end usersand/or consumers, retailers, and/or original equipment manufacturers(OEMs).

The figures are not to scale. In general, the same reference numberswill be used throughout the drawing(s) and accompanying writtendescription to refer to the same or like parts.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Unless specifically stated otherwise, descriptors such as “first,”“second,” “third,” etc., are used herein without imputing or otherwiseindicating any meaning of priority, physical order, arrangement in alist, and/or ordering in any way, but are merely used as labels and/orarbitrary names to distinguish elements for ease of understanding thedisclosed examples. In some examples, the descriptor “first” may be usedto refer to an element in the detailed description, while the sameelement may be referred to in a claim with a different descriptor suchas “second” or “third.” In such instances, it should be understood thatsuch descriptors are used merely for identifying those elementsdistinctly that might, for example, otherwise share a same name. As usedherein “substantially real time” and “substantially simultaneously”refer to occurrences in a near instantaneous manner recognizing theremay be real world delays for computing time, transmission, etc. Thus,unless otherwise specified, “substantially real time” and “substantiallysimultaneously” refer to real time +/−1 second. As used herein, thephrase “in communication,” including variations thereof, encompassesdirect communication and/or indirect communication through one or moreintermediary components, and does not require direct physical (e.g.,wired) communication and/or constant communication, but ratheradditionally includes selective communication at periodic intervals,scheduled intervals, aperiodic intervals, and/or one-time events.

As used herein, “processor circuitry” is defined to include (i) one ormore special purpose electrical circuits structured to perform specificoperation(s) and including one or more semiconductor-based logic devices(e.g., electrical hardware implemented by one or more transistors),and/or (ii) one or more general purpose semiconductor-based electricalcircuits programmed with instructions to perform specific operations andincluding one or more semiconductor-based logic devices (e.g.,electrical hardware implemented by one or more transistors). Examples ofprocessor circuitry include programmed microprocessors, FieldProgrammable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) that may instantiate instructions,Central Processor Units (CPUs), Graphics Processor Units (GPUs), DigitalSignal Processors (DSPs), XPUs, or microcontrollers and integratedcircuits such as Application Specific Integrated Circuits (ASICs). Forexample, an XPU may be implemented by a heterogeneous computing systemincluding multiple types of processor circuitry (e.g., one or moreFPGAs, one or more CPUs, one or more GPUs, one or more DSPs, etc.,and/or a combination thereof) and application programming interface(s)(API(s)) that may assign computing task(s) to whichever one(s) of themultiple types of the processing circuitry is/are best suited to executethe computing task(s).

Systems, apparatus, and methods to improve watermark detection inacoustic environments are disclosed. Watermarks can be embedded orotherwise included in media to enable additional information to beconveyed with the media. The watermarks enable monitoring of thedistribution and/or use of media by identifying the particular mediabeing presented to viewers, listeners, users, etc. The information canbe valuable to advertisers, content providers, and the like. Some knownmedia monitoring systems employing watermarks typically includewatermark encoders that encode watermarks that are unique for individualmedia content files. However, depending on the encoding methodologyemployed, the ability to detect such watermarks in acousticenvironments, such as noisy, loud volume, etc., type environments, maybe substantially or entirely diminished.

Some watermark encoding techniques are described in U.S. patentapplication No. 13/955,245 (U.S. Pat. No. 9,711,152), entitled SYSTEMS,APPARATUS AND METHODS FOR ENCODING/DECODING PERSISTENT UNIVERSAL MEDIACODES TO ENCODED AUDIO, U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/955,438(U.S. Publication No. 2015/0039321), entitled APPARATUS, SYSTEM ANDMETHOD FOR READING CODES FROM DIGITAL AUDIO ON A PROCESSING DEVICE, U.S.patent application Ser. No. 14/023,221 (U.S. Publication No.2015/0039322), entitled APPARATUS, SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR MERGING CODELAYERS FOR AUDIO ENCODING AND DECODING, U.S. patent application Ser. No.14/587,995 (U.S. Pat. No. 9,418,395), entitled POWER EFFICIENT DETECTIONOF WATERMARKS IN MEDIA SIGNALS, and U.S. patent application Ser. No.15/994,383 (U.S. Pat. No. 10,694,243), entitled METHODS AND APPARATUS TOIDENTIFY MEDIA BASED ON WATERMARKS ACROSS DIFFERENT AUDIO STREAMS AND/ORDIFFERENT WATERMARKING TECHNIQUES.

Examples disclosed herein can improve watermark detection in mediapublished on on-demand platforms. Unlike a linear program that airs on aset schedule (e.g., a program published over-the-air, or via cable,satellite, network, etc., on a broadcast or distribution schedule), someon-demand platforms have no set airing schedule. Instead, viewers mayselect media from a menu of media and watch and/or otherwise access themedia when convenient for the viewers. Some on-demand platforms publishmedia for access by viewers within a specific time period after aninitial publishing of the media and/or after an availability of themedia on a media platform (e.g., a streaming media platform). In someexamples, such on-demand platforms may implement recently telecastvideo-on demand (RTVOD) platforms or media providers. In some examples,RTVOD platforms may publish media on a first day and may make the mediaavailable for on-demand media presentation within a first time period(e.g., within three days after initial publishing), a second time period(e.g., within seven days of initial publishing), etc., after the initialpublishing on the first day. In some such examples, the RTVOD platformsmay be media platforms (e.g., on-demand media platforms, streaming mediaplatforms, etc.) maintained by streaming media providers such asNetflix™, Hulu™, Prime Video™, HBO MAX™, Showtime™, etc.

An audience measurement entity (AME), such as the Nielsen Company (US),LLC, may facilitate the encoding of watermarks in RTVOD media in aneffort to understand the demographic compositions of viewing audiencesof such media within the first time period, the second time period,etc., after the initial publishing on the first day. For example, amedia presentation device may access RTVOD media that is embedded withwatermarks, and a meter may detect the watermarks embedded in audio ofthe RTVOD media in response to the media presentation device accessingand/or presenting the RTVOD media. In some such examples, in response tothe meter detecting the watermarks, the meter may provide an indicationto the AME that the media presentation device accessed and/or presentedthe RTVOD media. However, the detection of watermarks embedded in RTVODmedia may be substantially or completely diminished when the RTVOD mediais accessed in acoustic environments, such as noisy, loud volume, etc.,type environments, which may include bars, restaurants, outdoorenvironments, etc.

Some on-demand platforms publish media that did not air within the pastseven days on linear programming distribution in the same exact form, ordid not air on linear programming distribution at all. In some examples,such on-demand platforms may implement library video-on demand (VOD)platforms or media providers. Examples of some such library VODplatforms may include libraries of programs that are made for on-demandpresentation, movies that are no longer showing in theatres, priorseasons of network or cable programs, current-season telecasts withchanged commercial content, etc. AMEs desire to understand thedemographic compositions of viewing audiences of such media.

An AME may facilitate the encoding of watermarks in library VOD media inan effort to understand the demographic compositions of viewingaudiences of such media. For example, a media presentation device mayaccess/present library VOD media embedded with watermarks, and a metermay identify the watermarks embedded in audio of the library VOD mediain response to the media presentation device accessing/presenting thelibrary VOD media. In some such examples, the meter may provide anindication to the audience measurement entity that the mediapresentation device accessed/presented the library VOD media, with themeter providing the indication in response to the meter identifying thewatermarks. However, the detection of watermarks embedded in library VODmedia may be substantially or completely diminished when the library VODmedia is accessed in acoustic environments, such as noisy, loud volume,etc., type environments.

Examples disclosed herein can improve watermark detection in mediaaccessed in acoustic environments by utilizing multilayer watermarks. Insome disclosed examples, a watermark encoder may generate sparsemultilayer watermarks by (i) inserting watermark symbol(s) at one ormore first symbol positions of a first watermark layer while leaving oneor more second symbol positions of the first watermark layer emptyand/or otherwise not filled with watermark symbol(s), and (ii) insertingwatermark symbol(s) at one or more second symbol positions of a secondwatermark layer while leaving one or more second symbol positions of thesecond watermark layer empty and/or otherwise not filled with watermarksymbol(s). For example, a symbol position may be empty when the symbolposition does not contain a symbol. In some such examples, a symbol maynot be encoded, embedded, etc., at the empty symbol position. In somedisclosed examples, the watermark encoder may select one(s) of thewatermark symbols to convey a state (e.g., a media state) of accessedmedia. For example, the state may be a first state (e.g., a first mediastate) that corresponds to media being accessed and/or presented withina first time period after an initial publishing of the media. In somesuch examples, the first state may implement a C3 media state thatindicates that RTVOD media is being accessed/presented within three daysof the initial publishing. In some examples, the state may be a secondstate (e.g., a second media state) that corresponds to the media beingaccessed and/or presented within a second time period after the initialpublishing. In some such examples, the first state may implement a C7media state that indicates that RTVOD media is being accessed/presentedwithin seven days of the initial publishing. In some examples, thewatermark encoder may embed RTVOD media with sparse multilayerwatermarks to increase a likelihood of detection of the state of themedia. For example, the watermark encoder may utilize watermark layersassociated with frequencies that have improved detection capability toincrease a likelihood of detecting the sparse multilayer watermarks.

In some disclosed examples, a watermark encoder may generate amultilayer watermark that conveys timestamps (e.g., timestamp or othertime data associated with media presentation) using frequencies thathave improved detection capability to increase a likelihood of detectingsuch a watermark. In some disclosed examples, the watermark encoder mayconvert (i) a first timestamp in a first format based on a number ofseconds at which a watermark is to be inserted into media into (ii) asecond timestamp in a second format based on a number of minutes atwhich the watermark is to be inserted into the media. In some disclosedexamples, the watermark encoder may determine a first bit sequence thatmay be inserted into a first watermark layer of the multilayer watermarkand a second bit sequence that may be inserted into a second watermarklayer of the multilayer watermark. In some disclosed examples, thewatermark encoder may insert one or more error checking or parity bitsinto at least one of the first bit sequence or the second bit sequencefor improved watermark detection. Advantageously, the example watermarkencoder may distribute the timestamp data amongst different layers of amultilayer watermark to increase a likelihood of detecting themultilayer watermark in acoustic environments. For example, a watermarkdecoder may extract the first bit sequence from the first watermarklayer and the second bit sequence from the second watermark layer andassemble the timestamp using the first bit sequence and the second bitsequence.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an example media monitoring system 100including an example media provider 102, an example audience measuremententity (AME) 104, an example watermark encoder 106, a first examplenetwork 108, a second example network 110, an example media presentationdevice 112, a first example panelist device 114, an example panelist116, and a second example panelist device 118. In the illustratedexample, the first panelist device 114 is an Internet-enabledsmartphone. The first panelist device 114 of the illustrated exampleincludes a first example meter 120, which may include and/or otherwiseimplement at least one of first example input device circuitry 122 or afirst example watermark decoder 124. In the illustrated example, thepanelist 116 is wearing the second panelist device 118, which includes asecond example meter 126. For example, the second panelist device 118may be a wrist-watch type device, a smartwatch, a fitness tracker, etc.The second meter 126 may include and/or otherwise implement at least oneof a second example watermark decoder 127 or second example input devicecircuitry 128. In some examples, the first input device circuitry 122and/or the second input device circuitry 128 may be implemented by, forexample, an audio sensor, a microphone, etc., or any other type ofsensor and/or circuitry that may detect audio (e.g., audio data, audiosignals, audio waveforms, etc.).

The media monitoring system 100 of the illustrated example supportsmonitoring of media presented at one or more monitored sites, such as anexample monitored site 130. The monitored site 130 includes the mediapresentation device 112. Although the example of FIG. 1 illustrates onemonitored site 130 and one media presentation device 112, improvedwatermark detection in acoustic environments as disclosed herein can beimplemented in media monitoring systems 100 supporting any number ofmonitored sites 130 having any number of media presentation devices 112.

The media provider 102 of the illustrated example corresponds to any oneor more media providers capable of providing media for presentation viathe media presentation device 112. The media provided by the mediaprovider 102 can include any type(s) of media, such as audio, video,multimedia, etc. Additionally, the media can correspond to live media,streaming media, broadcast media, stored media, on-demand content, etc.

In some examples, the media provider 102 of the illustrated example maybe implemented by one or more servers providing streaming media (e.g.,web pages, audio, videos, images, etc.). For example, the media provider102 may be implemented by any provider(s) of media such as a digitalbroadcast provider (cable television service, fiber-optic televisionservice, etc.) and/or an on-demand digital media provider (e.g.,Internet streaming video and/or audio services such as Netflix®,YouTube®, Hulu®, Pandora®, Last.fm®, HBO MAX™, etc.) and/or any otherprovider of streaming media services. In some other examples, the mediaprovider 102 is a host for web site(s). Additionally or alternatively,the media provider 102 may not be on the Internet. For example, themedia provider 102 may be on a private and/or semi-private network(e.g., a LAN, a virtual private network, etc.) to which the mediapresentation device 112 connects.

The AME 104 of the illustrated example may be implemented by one or moreservers that collect and process media monitoring information from thefirst meter 120 and/or the second meter 126 to generate exposuremetrics, identify demographic trends, etc., related to presented media.The media monitoring information may also be correlated or processedwith factors such as geodemographic data (e.g., a geographic location ofthe media exposure measurement location, age(s) of the panelist(s) 116associated with the monitored site 130, an income level of a panelist116, etc.). Media monitoring information may be useful to advertisers todetermine which media is popular or trending among users, identifygeodemographic trends with respect to presentation of media, identifymarket opportunities, and/or otherwise evaluate their own and/or theircompetitors' media.

In the illustrated example, the media provider 102 may provide media tobe embedded with watermarks to at least one of the AME 104 or thewatermark encoder 106. In some examples, the AME 104 may generate asource identifier (SID) that uniquely identifies the media provider 102.The AME 104 may provide the SID to the media provider 102. The AME 104may generate timestamps of the media, which may be referred to astime-in content (TIC) indicators, markers, data, etc. In some examples,the media provider 102 may generate the media timestamps and provide themedia timestamps to at least one of the AME 104 or the watermark encoder106. In some examples, the watermark encoder 106 may generate the mediatimestamps.

In the illustrated example, the watermark encoder 106 embeds watermarksin media generated by the media provider 102 that can be decoded by thewatermark decoder 124, 127 when the media is presented by the mediapresentation device 112. For example, the media provider 102 and/or theAME 104 may provide at least one of the media to be encoded (e.g.,embedded with watermarks), a media identifier that identifies the media,the SID corresponding to the media provider 102, and/or timestamps(e.g., TIC markers) to the watermark encoder 106. In some examples, thewatermark encoder 106 may generate the timestamps while sequentiallyembedding watermarks in the media obtained from the media provider 102and/or the AME 104. The watermark encoder 106 may generate watermarksthat include at least one of the media identifier, the SID, and/or thetimestamps. The watermark encoder 106 may encode the media by embeddingthe watermarks into the media. For example, the watermark encoder 106may embed the at least one of the media identifier, the SID, and/or thetimestamps, or portion(s) thereof, across one or more layers ofmultilayered watermarks associated with one or more frequencies (e.g.,acoustic frequencies) that may be detected by the watermark decoder 124,127. Advantageously, the watermark encoder 106 may generate themultilayered watermarks by inserting portion(s) of data to be embedded,such as the media identifier, the SID, and/or the timestamps, at one ormore symbol positions of one or more layers of the multilayeredwatermark. The watermark encoder 106 may provide, deliver, and/orotherwise transmit the encoded media to the media presentation device112 via the first network 108. Alternatively, the watermark encoder 106may provide the encoded media to the media provider 102. In suchexamples, the media provider 102 may provide the encoded media to themedia presentation device 112 via the first network 108.

The first network 108 and/or the second network 110 of the illustratedexample is/are the Internet. However, the first network 108 and/or thesecond network 110 may be implemented using any suitable wired and/orwireless network(s) including, for example, one or more data buses, oneor more Local Area Networks (LANs), one or more wireless LANs, one ormore cellular networks, one or more private networks, one or more publicnetworks, etc. The first network 108 enables the media provider 102and/or the watermark encoder 106 to be in communication with the mediapresentation device 112. The second network 110 enables the AME 104 tobe in communication with at least one of the first meter 120 or thesecond meter 126.

The media monitoring system 100 of the illustrated example includes thefirst meter 120 and/or the second meter 126 to monitor media presentedby the media presentation device 112. In some examples, the first meter120 and/or the second meter 126 may be referred to as a media devicemeter, a site meter, a site unit, a home unit, a portable device, apeople meter, a wearable meter, etc. In the illustrated example, themedia monitored by the first meter 120 and/or the second meter 126 cancorrespond to any type of media presentable by the media presentationdevice 112. For example, monitored media can correspond to mediacontent, such a television programs, radio programs, movies, Internetvideo, recently telecast video on demand (RTVOD), libraryvideo-on-demand (VOD), etc., as well as commercials, advertisements,etc.

In the illustrated example, the first meter 120 and/or the second meter126 determine metering data that may identify and/or be used to identifymedia presented by the media presentation device 112 (and, thus, infermedia exposure) at the monitored site 130. In some examples, the firstmeter 120 and/or the second meter 126 may store and report such meteringdata via the second network 110 to the AME 104. The AME 104 performs anyappropriate post-processing of the metering data to, for example,determine audience ratings information, identify demographics of usersthat accessed the media, identify targeted advertising to be provided tothe monitored site 130, etc.

In the illustrated example, the media presentation device 112 monitoredby the first meter 120 and/or the second meter 126 can correspond to anytype of audio, video and/or multimedia presentation device capable ofpresenting media audibly and/or visually. In this example, the mediapresentation device 112 is a television (e.g., a smart television, anInternet-enabled television, etc.). For example, the media presentationdevice 112 can correspond to a television and/or display device thatsupports the National Television Standards Committee (NTSC) standard,the Phase Alternating Line (PAL) standard, the Systeme Electronique pourCouleur avec Mémoire (SECAM) standard, a standard developed by theAdvanced Television Systems Committee (ATSC), such as high definitiontelevision (HDTV), a standard developed by the Digital VideoBroadcasting (DVB) Project, etc. As other examples, the mediapresentation device 112 can correspond to a multimedia computer system,a personal digital assistant, a cellular/mobile smartphone, a radio, atablet computer, etc.

In the media monitoring system 100 of the illustrated example, the firstmeter 120, the second meter 126, and the AME 104 cooperate to performmedia monitoring based on detecting media watermarks. Moreover, thefirst meter 120 and/or the second meter 126 detect media multilayerwatermarks as disclosed herein for improved detection in acousticenvironments. Examples of watermarks include identification codes,ancillary codes, etc., that may be transmitted within media signals. Forexample, identification codes can be transmitted as watermarked dataembedded or otherwise included with media (e.g., inserted into theaudio, video, or metadata stream of media) to uniquely identifybroadcasters and/or media (e.g., content or advertisements). Watermarkscan additionally or alternatively be used to carry other types of data,such as copyright protection information, secondary data (e.g., such asone or more hyperlinks pointing to secondary media retrievable via theInternet and associated with the primary media carrying the watermark),commands to control one or more devices, etc. Watermarks are typicallyextracted using a decoding operation, which may be implemented by thewatermark decoder 124, 127 in this example.

In contrast, signatures are a representation of some characteristic ofthe media signal (e.g., a characteristic of the frequency spectrum ofthe signal). Signatures can be thought of as fingerprints. They aretypically not dependent upon insertion of data in the media, but insteadpreferably reflect an inherent characteristic of the media and/or thesignal transporting the media. Systems to utilize codes and/orsignatures for audience measurement are long known. See, for example,U.S. Pat. No. 5,481,294 to Thomas et al., which is hereby incorporatedby reference in its entirety.

In the illustrated example, the first meter 120 and the second meter 126are implemented by portable devices (e.g., an Internet-enabled handset,a handheld device, a wearable device, a smartwatch, etc.) including thefirst input device circuitry 122, the first watermark decoder 124, thesecond watermark decoder 127, and/or the second input device circuitry128. For example, the first meter 120 of the illustrated example may beimplemented by an Internet-enabled handset, smartphone, etc. The secondmeter 126 of the illustrated example may be implemented by a wearabledevice (e.g., wrist-watch type device, a smartwatch, a fitness tracker,etc.).

In the illustrated example, the first input device circuitry 122 and/orthe second input device circuitry 128 may capture audio generated byexample audio devices 132 (e.g., speaker(s) of the media presentationdevice 112). The first input device circuitry 122 and/or the secondinput device circuitry 128 may provide the audio to a respective one ofthe watermark decoders 124, 127. The watermark decoders 124, 127 areconfigured to detect watermark(s) in media signal(s) (e.g., audio)output from a monitored media device, such as the media presentationdevice 112.

In some examples, the first meter 120 and/or the second meter 126correspond to special purpose portable device(s) constructed toimplement a respective one of the watermark decoders 124, 127. Forexample, the first meter 120 may be an application (e.g., a softwareand/or firmware application) that can be executed by the first panelistdevice 114 to extract watermarks from audio generated in response to anaccess of media by the media presentation device 112. In some suchexamples, the first meter 120 may utilize the first watermark decoder124 to extract the watermarks. In some examples, the second meter 126may be an application (e.g., a software and/or firmware application)that can be executed by the second panelist device 118 to extractwatermarks from audio output from the audio devices 132. In some suchexamples, the second meter 126 may utilize the second watermark decoder127 to extract the watermarks.

In some examples, the first meter 120 and/or the second meter 126 can beimplemented by any portable device capable of being adapted (viahardware changes, software changes, firmware changes, etc., or anycombination thereof) to implement a respective one of the watermarkdecoders 124, 127. As such, the first meter 120 and/or the second meter126 can be implemented by a smartphone, a tablet computer, a handhelddevice, a wrist-watch type device, other wearable devices, a specialpurpose device, etc. In some examples, the first meter 120 and/or thesecond meter 126 can be implemented by a portable device that, althoughportable, is intended to be relatively stationary. Furthermore, in someexamples, the first meter 120 and/or the second meter 126 can beimplemented by or otherwise included in the media presentation device112, such as when the media presentation device 112 corresponds to aportable device (e.g., a smartphone, a tablet computer, a handhelddevice, etc.) capable of presenting media. (This latter implementationcan be especially useful in example scenarios in which a mediamonitoring application is executed on the media presentation device 112itself, but the media presentation device 112 prevents, e.g., viadigital rights management or other techniques, third-party applications,such as the media monitoring application, from accessing protected mediadata stored on the media presentation device 112.).

The terms “media data” and “media” as used herein mean data which iswidely accessible, whether over-the-air, or via cable, satellite,network, internetwork (including the Internet), print, displayed,distributed on storage media, or by any other means or technique that ishumanly perceptible, without regard to the form or content of such data,and including but not limited to audio, video, audio/video, text,images, animations, databases, broadcasts, displays (including but notlimited to video displays, posters and billboards), signs, signals, webpages, print media and streaming media data.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of an example implementation of the examplewatermark encoder 106 of FIG. 1 to encode media with multilayeredwatermarks to improve watermark detection in acoustic environments. Thewatermark encoder 106 of FIG. 2 may be instantiated by processorcircuitry such as a central processing unit executing instructions.Additionally or alternatively, the watermark encoder 106 of FIG. 2 maybe instantiated by an ASIC or an FPGA structured to perform operationscorresponding to the instructions.

The watermark encoder 106 of the illustrated example of FIG. 2 includesexample interface circuitry 210, example media identification generatorcircuitry 220, example source identification (SID) generator circuitry230, example timestamp generator circuitry 240, example dense watermarkembedder circuitry 250, example sparse watermark embedder circuitry 260,an example datastore 270, and an example bus 280. In this example, thedatastore 270 includes example media 272, example identifiers 274,example timestamps 276, and example watermarks 278. The interfacecircuitry 210, the media identification generator circuitry 220, the SIDgenerator circuitry 230, the timestamp generator circuitry 240, thedense watermark embedder circuitry 250, the sparse watermark embeddercircuitry 260, and/or the datastore 270 is/are in communication withone(s) of each other by the bus 280. For example, the bus 280 may beimplemented by at least one of an Inter-Integrated Circuit (I2C) bus, aSerial Peripheral Interface (SPI) bus, or a Peripheral ComponentInterconnect (PCI) bus. Additionally or alternatively, the bus 280 mayimplement any other type of computing or electrical bus.

The watermark encoder 106 includes the interface circuitry 210 toreceive and/or transmit data. In some examples, the interface circuitry210 receives and/or otherwise obtains at least one of the media 272, theidentifiers 274, or the timestamps 276 from at least one of the mediaprovider 102 or the AME 104 of FIG. 1 . For example, the interfacecircuitry 210 may obtain the media 272 for encoding. In some examples,the interface circuitry 210 may implement a web server that receivesdata from the media provider 102 and/or the AME 104. In some examples,the interface circuitry 210 may implement a web server that transmitsdata to the media provider 102, the AME 104, and/or the mediapresentation device 112. In some examples, the interface circuitry 210may receive and/or transmit data formatted as an HTTP message. However,any other message format and/or protocol may additionally oralternatively be used such as, for example, a file transfer protocol(FTP), a simple message transfer protocol (SMTP), an HTTP secure (HTTPS)protocol, etc. In some examples, the interface circuitry 210 may beimplemented by hardware in accordance with any type of interfacestandard, such as an Ethernet interface, a universal serial bus (USB)interface, a Bluetooth® interface, a near field communication (NFC)interface, a Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) interface, and/or aPeripheral Component Interconnect Express (PCIe) interface.

The watermark encoder 106 includes the media identification generatorcircuitry 220 to generate a media identifier that identifies the media272. In some such examples, the media identification generator circuitry220 may generate the media identifier to be inserted into a watermark,such as a multilayered watermark as disclosed herein. In some examples,the media identification generator circuitry 220 generates the mediaidentifier based on the media 272 (e.g., a title, a duration, etc., orany other data associated with the media 272). In some examples, themedia identification generator circuitry 220 determines whether themedia 272 is scheduled and/or otherwise intended to be accessed bydevice(s) (e.g., the media presentation device 112 of FIG. 1 ) afterpublishing of the media 272 by the media provider 102 of FIG. 1 . Forexample, the media identification generator circuitry 220 may determinewhen the media 272 is to be accessed by device(s) based on data includedwith a request to encode the media 272 from at least one of the mediaprovider 102 or the AME 104. In some such examples, the request mayinclude metadata, a command or instruction, or any other data toindicate whether the media 272 is scheduled to be accessed as a linearprogram, as an RTVOD program, a library VOD program, etc. In someexamples, the media identification generator circuitry 220 may identifythe media 272 as a linear program in response to a determination thatthe media 272 is not to be accessed by the media presentation device 112after an initial publishing of the media 272 (e.g., the media 272 is tobe accessed by the media presentation device 112 concurrently with thepublishing of the media 272).

In some examples, the media identification generator circuitry 220determines whether the media 272 is scheduled and/or otherwise intendedto be accessed by device(s) after a premiere or initial publishing ofthe media 272. For example, the media identification generator circuitry220 can determine whether the media 272 is scheduled, slated, planned,programmed, tagged, identified, etc., to be accessed by device(s) withina first time period (e.g., within three days, within four days, etc.)after the publishing of the media 272. In some examples, the mediaidentification generator circuitry 220 determines whether the media 272is scheduled to be accessed by device(s) within a second time period(e.g., within seven days, within eighth days, etc.) after the publishingof the media 272. In some examples, the media identification generatorcircuitry 220 determines whether a media file (e.g., the media 272) hascompleted an encoding process.

The watermark encoder 106 includes the SID generator circuitry 230 togenerate a SID that identifies a provider (e.g., a media provider), agenerator, a distributor, and/or otherwise publisher of the media 272.For example, the SID generator circuitry 230 may generate a SID thatidentifies the media provider 102. In some such examples, the SIDgenerator circuitry 230 may generate the SID to be inserted into awatermark, such as a multilayered watermark as disclosed herein.

The watermark encoder 106 includes the timestamp generator circuitry 240to generate timestamps. In some examples, the timestamp generatorcircuitry 240 may generate a timestamp to be inserted into a watermark,such as a multilayered watermark as disclosed herein. In some examples,the timestamp generator circuitry 240 generates the timestamp to bedistributed across one or more layers of a multilayered watermark. Insome examples, the timestamp generator circuitry 240 may generate one ormore error check or parity bits to be associated with the timestamp. Forexample, at least one of the dense watermark embedder circuitry 250 orthe sparse watermark embedder circuitry 260 may encode the timestamp andone or more parity bits into one or more layers of a multilayerwatermark.

The watermark encoder 106 includes the dense watermark embeddercircuitry 250 to generate a watermark in which an entirety orsubstantial quantity of symbol positions of the watermark are filledwith symbols (e.g., watermark symbols, data symbols, audio encodingsymbols, etc.). For example, the dense watermark embedder circuitry 250may generate a dense watermark that has eight symbol positions byinserting a symbol at every one of the eight symbol positions. In someexamples, the dense watermark embedder circuitry 250 may encode themedia 272 with dense watermarks to indicate that the media 272 isaccessed during a premiere or initial publishing of the media 272.

In some examples, the dense watermark embedder circuitry 250 may encodethe media 272 with single layer watermarks to convey at least one ofmedia identifiers or timestamps. In some examples, the dense watermarkembedder circuitry 250 may encode the media 272 with multilayerwatermarks to convey at least one of media identifiers or timestamps.

The watermark encoder 106 includes the sparse watermark embeddercircuitry 260 to generate a watermark in which a substantial portion ofsymbol positions of a watermark is empty and/or otherwise not filledwith a symbol. For example, the sparse watermark embedder circuitry 260may generate a sparse watermark that has eight symbol positions byinserting a symbol at one or two of the eight symbol positions. In someexamples, the sparse watermark embedder circuitry 260 may encode themedia 272 with sparse watermarks to indicate that the media 272 isaccessed after a premiere or initial publishing of the media 272. Forexample, the sparse watermark embedder circuitry 260 may encode themedia 272 with sparse watermarks to indicate that the media 272 isaccessed within three days, within seven days, etc., after the premiereof the media 272 on a platform (e.g., a media platform, a media providerplatform, etc.).

In some examples, the sparse watermark embedder circuitry 260 may encodethe media 272 with sparse single layer watermarks to convey at least oneof media identifiers or timestamps. In some examples, the sparsewatermark embedder circuitry 260 may encode the media 272 with sparsemultilayer watermarks to convey at least one of media identifiers ortimestamps. For example, the sparse watermark embedder circuitry 260 mayselect a first symbol to be inserted at a first symbol position on afirst encoding layer of a multilayered watermark. In some such examples,the sparse watermark embedder circuitry 260 may select that one or moreof the remaining symbol positions on the first encoding layer is/are toremain empty and/or otherwise not include a symbol. In some examples,the sparse watermark embedder circuitry 260 may select a second symbolto be inserted at a second symbol position on a second encoding layer ofthe multilayered watermark. In some such examples, the sparse watermarkembedder circuitry 260 may select that one or more of the remainingsymbol positions on the second encoding layer is/are to remain emptyand/or otherwise not include a symbol (e.g., a symbol is not encoded,embedded, etc., at the empty symbol positions). The sparse watermarkembedder circuitry 260 may encode the first symbol in a media file(e.g., the media 272) at the first symbol position on the first encodinglayer. The sparse watermark embedder circuitry 260 may encode the secondsymbol in the media file at the second symbol position on the secondencoding layer. In some examples, the sparse watermark embeddercircuitry 260 may select the first symbol, the second symbol, and theplacement(s) of the first and second symbols to indicate that the media272 is to be accessed within a first time period, a second time period,etc., after the premiere of the media 272.

The watermark encoder 106 of the illustrated example includes thedatastore 270 to record data (e.g., the media 272, the identifiers 274,the timestamps 276, the watermarks 278, etc.). For example, thedatastore 270 may store the media 272, which may include unencodedand/or encoded media. In some such examples, the datastore 270 mayrecord the media 272 obtained from at least one of the media provider102 or the AME 104 of FIG. 1 . The datastore 270 may store theidentifiers 274, which may include media identifiers generated by themedia identification generator circuitry 220, SIDs generated by the SIDgenerator circuitry 230, etc. The datastore 270 may store the timestamps276 generated by the timestamp generator circuitry 240. The datastore270 may store the watermarks 278 generated by at least one of the densewatermark embedder circuitry 250 or the sparse watermark embeddercircuitry 260.

The datastore 270 may be implemented by a volatile memory (e.g., aSynchronous Dynamic Random Access Memory (SDRAM), Dynamic Random AccessMemory (DRAM), RAIVIBUS Dynamic Random Access Memory (RDRAM), etc.)and/or a non-volatile memory (e.g., flash memory). The datastore 270 mayadditionally or alternatively be implemented by one or more double datarate (DDR) memories, such as DDR, DDR2, DDR3, DDR4, mobile DDR (mDDR),etc. The datastore 270 may additionally or alternatively be implementedby one or more mass storage devices such as hard disk drive(s) (HDD(s)),compact disk (CD) drive(s), digital versatile disk (DVD) drive(s),solid-state disk (SSD) drive(s), etc. While in the illustrated examplethe datastore 270 is illustrated as a single datastore, the datastore270 may be implemented by any number and/or type(s) of datastores.Furthermore, the data stored in the datastore 270 may be in any dataformat such as, for example, binary data, comma delimited data, tabdelimited data, structured query language (SQL) structures, etc. In someexamples, the datastore 270 implements one or more databases. The term“database” as used herein means an organized body of related data,regardless of the manner in which the data or the organized body thereofis represented. For example, the organized body of related data may bein the form of one or more of a table, a map, a grid, a packet, adatagram, a frame, a file, an e-mail, a message, a document, a report, alist or in any other form.

In some examples, the watermark encoder 106 includes means for encodinga symbol in a media file. For example, the means for encoding may beimplemented by at least one of the interface circuitry 210, the mediaidentification generator circuitry 220, the SID generator circuitry 230,the timestamp generator circuitry 240, the dense watermark embeddercircuitry 250, the sparse watermark embedder circuitry 260, or thedatastore 270. In some examples, the at least one of the interfacecircuitry 210, the media identification generator circuitry 220, the SIDgenerator circuitry 230, the timestamp generator circuitry 240, thedense watermark embedder circuitry 250, the sparse watermark embeddercircuitry 260, or the datastore 270 may be instantiated by processorcircuitry such as the example processor circuitry 1412 of FIG. 14 . Forinstance, the at least one of the interface circuitry 210, the mediaidentification generator circuitry 220, the SID generator circuitry 230,the timestamp generator circuitry 240, the dense watermark embeddercircuitry 250, the sparse watermark embedder circuitry 260, or thedatastore 270 may be instantiated by the example general purposeprocessor circuitry 1700 of FIG. 17 executing machine executableinstructions such as that implemented by at least blocks 1002, 1004,1006, 1008 of FIG. 10 , blocks 1102, 1104, 1106, 1108, 1110, 1112, 1114,1116, 1118, 1120, 1122 of FIG. 11 , blocks 1202, 1204, 1206, 1208 ofFIG. 12 , and/or blocks 1302, 1304, 1306, 1308, 1310, 1312, 1314, 1316,1318 of FIG. 13 . In some examples, the at least one of the interfacecircuitry 210, the media identification generator circuitry 220, the SIDgenerator circuitry 230, the timestamp generator circuitry 240, thedense watermark embedder circuitry 250, the sparse watermark embeddercircuitry 260, or the datastore 270 may be instantiated by hardwarelogic circuitry, which may be implemented by an ASIC or the FPGAcircuitry 1800 of FIG. 18 structured to perform operations correspondingto the machine readable instructions. Additionally or alternatively, theat least one of the interface circuitry 210, the media identificationgenerator circuitry 220, the SID generator circuitry 230, the timestampgenerator circuitry 240, the dense watermark embedder circuitry 250, thesparse watermark embedder circuitry 260, or the datastore 270 may beinstantiated by any other combination of hardware, software, and/orfirmware. For example, the at least one of the interface circuitry 210,the media identification generator circuitry 220, the SID generatorcircuitry 230, the timestamp generator circuitry 240, the densewatermark embedder circuitry 250, the sparse watermark embeddercircuitry 260, or the datastore 270 may be implemented by at least oneor more hardware circuits (e.g., processor circuitry, discrete and/orintegrated analog and/or digital circuitry, an FPGA, an ApplicationSpecific Integrated Circuit (ASIC), a comparator, anoperational-amplifier (op-amp), a logic circuit, etc.) structured toexecute some or all of the machine readable instructions and/or toperform some or all of the operations corresponding to the machinereadable instructions without executing software or firmware, but otherstructures are likewise appropriate.

In some examples, the means for encoding is to encode a first symbol ina media file at a first symbol position on a first encoding layer of amultilayered watermark, and encode a second symbol in the media file ata second symbol position on a second encoding layer of the multilayeredwatermark, the first encoding layer and the second encoding layerincluding a plurality of symbol positions, one or more of the pluralityof the symbol positions on at least one of the first encoding layer orthe second encoding layer to be empty.

In some examples, the means for encoding includes means for identifyinga media file as scheduled to be accessed by a media device after apublishing of the media file by a media provider. In some examples, themeans for identifying may be implemented by the media identificationgenerator circuitry 220.

In some examples, in response to identifying the media file as scheduledto be accessed by the media device within a first time period after thepublishing of the media file, the means for encoding is to select thefirst symbol to be inserted at the first symbol position and the secondsymbol to be inserted at the second symbol position to identify anaccess of the media filed by the media device within the first timeperiod. For example, the means for encoding may include means forselecting the first symbol and the second symbol. In some such examples,the means for selecting may be implemented by at least one of the densewatermark embedder circuitry 250 or the sparse watermark embeddercircuitry 260.

In some examples, in response to identifying the media file as scheduledto be accessed by the media device within a second time period after thepublishing of the media file, the means for encoding is to select thefirst symbol to be inserted at a third symbol position on the firstencoding layer and the second symbol to be inserted at a fourth symbolposition on the second encoding layer, encode the first symbol in themedia file at the third symbol position on the first encoding layer, andencode the second symbol in the media file at the fourth symbol positionon the second encoding layer, one or more of the plurality of the symbolpositions on at least one of the first encoding layer or the secondencoding layer to be empty.

In some examples, the means for encoding is to encode a first bitsequence in a media file on a first encoding layer of a multilayeredwatermark, the first bit sequence to include one or more first bitsassociated with a timestamp of the multilayered watermark, and encode asecond bit sequence in the media file on a second encoding layer of themultilayered watermark, the second bit sequence to include (i) one ormore second bits associated with the timestamp and (ii) one or morethird bits.

In some examples, the means for encoding includes means for convertingto convert the timestamp in a first format to a second format, the firstformat based on a number of seconds at which the multilayered watermarkis to be encoded in the media file, the second format based on a numberof minutes at which the multilayered watermark is to be encoded in themedia file, and convert the timestamp in the second format to a thirdbit sequence, the first bit sequence corresponding to one or more leastsignificant bits of the third bit sequence, the second bit sequencecorresponding to one or more most significant bits of the third bitsequence. In some such examples, the means for converting may beimplemented by the timestamp generator circuitry 240.

In some examples, the means for encoding includes means for determiningto determine a first value based on the timestamp and a range oftimestamps, determine a second value based on the timestamp, the firstvalue, and the range of timestamps, and convert the second value intothe first bit sequence. In some such examples, the means for determiningis to determine a third value based on a sum of the first value and thesecond value, convert the third value into a third bit sequence, anddetermine the one or more third bits by shifting the third bit sequenceby an offset value. In some such examples, the means for determining maybe implemented by the timestamp generator circuitry 240.

In some examples, the means for encoding includes means for determiningto determine a third value based on a multiplication of the first valueand a fourth value, determine a fifth value based on a sum of the thirdvalue and a parity value, the parity value to be converted into the oneor more third bits, and convert the fifth value into the one or moresecond bits. In some such examples, the means for determining may beimplemented by the timestamp generator circuitry 240.

In some examples in which the media file is to be encoded with aplurality of multilayered watermarks with associated timestamps,successive ones of the timestamps to be incremented at a minute level,the plurality of the multilayered watermarks including the multilayerwatermark, the timestamps including the timestamp, the means forencoding includes means for incrementing to increment successive ones ofthe plurality of the timestamps at the minute level, and in response tothe incrementing of the successive ones of the plurality of thetimestamps, increment the first bit sequence and the second bit sequenceof respective ones of the successive ones of the plurality of thetimestamps. In some such examples, the means for incrementing may beimplemented by the timestamp generator circuitry 240.

While an example manner of implementing the watermark encoder 106 ofFIG. 1 is illustrated in FIG. 2 , one or more of the elements,processes, and/or devices illustrated in FIG. 2 may be combined,divided, re-arranged, omitted, eliminated, and/or implemented in anyother way. Further, the interface circuitry 210, the mediaidentification generator circuitry 220, the SID generator circuitry 230,the timestamp generator circuitry 240, the dense watermark embeddercircuitry 250, the sparse watermark embedder circuitry 260, thedatastore 270, the bus 280, and/or, more generally, the examplewatermark encoder 106 of FIG. 1 , may be implemented by hardware,software, firmware, and/or any combination of hardware, software, and/orfirmware. Thus, for example, any of the interface circuitry 210, themedia identification generator circuitry 220, the SID generatorcircuitry 230, the timestamp generator circuitry 240, the densewatermark embedder circuitry 250, the sparse watermark embeddercircuitry 260, the datastore 270, the bus 280, and/or, more generally,the example watermark encoder 106, could be implemented by processorcircuitry, analog circuit(s), digital circuit(s), logic circuit(s),programmable processor(s), programmable microcontroller(s), graphicsprocessing unit(s) (GPU(s)), digital signal processor(s) (DSP(s)),application specific integrated circuit(s) (ASIC(s)), programmable logicdevice(s) (PLD(s)), and/or field programmable logic device(s) (FPLD(s))such as Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs). When reading any of theapparatus or system claims of this patent to cover a purely softwareand/or firmware implementation, at least one of the interface circuitry210, the media identification generator circuitry 220, the SID generatorcircuitry 230, the timestamp generator circuitry 240, the densewatermark embedder circuitry 250, the sparse watermark embeddercircuitry 260, the datastore 270, and/or the bus 280 is/are herebyexpressly defined to include a non-transitory computer readable storagedevice or storage disk such as a memory, a DVD, a CD, a Blu-ray disk,etc., including the software and/or firmware. Further still, the examplewatermark encoder 106 of FIG. 1 may include one or more elements,processes, and/or devices in addition to, or instead of, thoseillustrated in FIG. 2 , and/or may include more than one of any or allof the illustrated elements, processes and devices.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of an example implementation of the firstexample watermark decoder 124 of FIG. 1 and/or the second examplewatermark decoder 127 of FIG. 1 to decode media that is embedded withmultilayered watermarks. The watermark decoder 124, 127 of FIG. 3 may beinstantiated by processor circuitry such as a central processing unitexecuting instructions. Additionally or alternatively, the watermarkdecoder 124, 127 of FIG. 3 may be instantiated by an ASIC or an FPGAstructured to perform operations corresponding to the instructions.

The watermark decoder 124, 127 of FIG. 3 includes example interfacecircuitry 310, example watermark detector circuitry 320, example mediaidentification determiner circuitry 330, example source identification(SID) determiner circuitry 340, example timestamp determiner circuitry350, an example datastore 370, and an example bus 380. In this example,the datastore 370 includes example identifiers 374, example timestamps376, and example watermarks 378. In the illustrated example, theinterface circuitry 310, the watermark detector circuitry 320, the mediaidentification determiner circuitry 330, the SID determiner circuitry340, the timestamp determiner circuitry 350, and the datastore 370is/are in communication with one(s) of each other by the bus 380. Forexample, the bus 380 may be implemented by at least one of an I2C bus, aSPI bus, a PCI, and/or a PCIe bus. Additionally or alternatively, thebus 380 may implement any other type of computing or electrical bus.

The watermark decoder 124, 127 of the illustrated example includes theinterface circuitry 310 to receive and/or transmit data. In someexamples, the interface circuitry 310 receives and/or otherwise obtainsdata from the AME 104, which may include firmware and/or softwareupdates to one or more components of the watermark decoder 124, 127. Insome examples, the interface circuitry 310 may transmit the identifiers374, the timestamps 376, or the watermarks 378 to the AME 104 of FIG. 1via the second network 110. In some examples, the interface circuitry310 may implement a web server that receives data from the AME 104. Insome examples, the interface circuitry 310 may implement a web serverthat transmits data to the AME 104. In some examples, the interfacecircuitry 310 may receive and/or transmit data formatted as an HTTPmessage. However, any other message format and/or protocol mayadditionally or alternatively be used such as, for example, FTP, SMTP,HTTPS protocol, etc. In some examples, the interface circuitry 310 maybe implemented by hardware in accordance with any type of interfacestandard, such as an Ethernet interface, a USB interface, a Bluetooth®interface, an NFC interface, a PCI interface, and/or a PCIe interface.

The watermark decoder 124, 127 of the illustrated example includes thewatermark detector circuitry 320 to detect a watermark associated withmedia (e.g., the media 272) accessed and/or presented by the mediapresentation device 112 of FIG. 1 . In some examples, the watermarkdetector circuitry 320 determines that encoded media isaccessed/presented by the media presentation device 112 in response to adetection of a watermark embedded in audio generated by the audiodevices 132 of FIG. 1 . In some examples, the watermark detectorcircuitry 320 extracts watermarks from the audio. For example, thewatermark detector circuitry 320 may extract a dense single ormultilayer watermark, a sparse single or multilayer watermark, etc.,from the audio.

In some examples, the watermark detector circuitry 320 identifiessymbol(s) at symbol position(s). For example, the watermark detectorcircuitry 320 may identify a first symbol at a first symbol position ofa first encoding layer of a multilayer watermark, a second symbol at asecond symbol position of a second encoding layer of the multilayerwatermark, etc. In some examples, the watermark detector circuitry 320determines whether to continue monitoring for access of encoded media bydevice(s) based on whether additional watermarks have been detected fromthe audio.

The watermark decoder 124, 127 of the illustrated example includes themedia identification determiner circuitry 330 to determine whether amedia identifier is identified based on a watermark. For example, themedia identification determiner circuitry 330 may determine that awatermark includes a media identifier that identifies media based ondetected symbol(s), symbol position(s) of the detected symbol(s), etc.In some such examples, the media identification determiner circuitry 330may identify the media based on the media identifier.

The watermark decoder 124, 127 of the illustrated example includes theSID determiner circuitry 340 to determine whether a SID is identifiedbased on a watermark. For example, the SID determiner circuitry 340 maydetermine that a watermark includes a SID that identifies a provider ofthe accessed media based on detected symbol(s), symbol position(s) ofthe detected symbol(s), etc. In some such examples, the SID determinercircuitry 340 may identify the provider of the accessed media based onthe SID.

The watermark decoder 124, 127 of the illustrated example includes thetimestamp determiner circuitry 350 to determine whether a timestamp isidentified based on a watermark. For example, the timestamp determinercircuitry 350 may determine that a watermark includes timestamp datathat identifies a portion of the media that the media presentationdevice 112 is presenting based on detected symbol(s), symbol position(s)of the detected symbol(s), etc. In some examples, the timestampdeterminer circuitry 350 may determine a timestamp based on timestampdata that is encoded on multiple layers of a multilayer watermark. Forexample, the timestamp determiner circuitry 350 may identify a first bitsequence on a first encoding layer of a multilayer watermark and asecond bit sequence on a second encoding layer of the multilayerwatermark. In some such examples, the timestamp determiner circuitry 350may assemble, compile, and/or otherwise determine the timestamp encodedin the media based on the first bit sequence, the second bit sequence,etc., and/or combination(s) thereof

In some examples, the timestamp determiner circuitry 350 may check,verify, and/or otherwise validate that the decoded timestamp is correctbased on one or more error check or parity bits included in at least oneof the first bit sequence or the second bit sequence. For example, thefirst bit sequence and/or the second bit sequence may include one ormore parity bits that, when decoded, may be used by the timestampdeterminer circuitry 350 to determine whether the timestamp is a validtimestamp.

In some examples, the timestamp determiner circuitry 350 may determinethat one(s) of the watermark symbols convey a state (e.g., a mediastate) of accessed media. For example, the timestamp determinercircuitry 350, based on a symbol position and/or encoding layer of oneor more watermark symbols, may determine that the one or more watermarksymbols convey and/or identify a first state (e.g., a first mediastate). In some such examples, the first state may correspond to mediabeing accessed and/or presented within a first time period after aninitial publishing of the media. In some such examples, the timestampdeterminer circuitry 350 may determine that the one or more watermarksymbols (e.g., encoding layer(s) and/or symbol position(s) associatedwith the one or more watermark symbols) indicate that theaccessed/presented media has the first state. In some such examples, thetimestamp determiner circuitry 350 may determine that the first stateimplements a C3 media state, which may indicate that theaccessed/presented RTVOD media is being accessed/presented within threedays of the initial publishing.

In some examples, the timestamp determiner circuitry 350, based on asymbol position and/or encoding layer of one or more watermark symbols,may determine that the one or more watermark symbols convey and/oridentify a second state (e.g., a second media state). In some suchexamples, the second state may correspond to media being accessed and/orpresented within a second time period after an initial publishing of themedia. In some such examples, the timestamp determiner circuitry 350 maydetermine that the one or more watermark symbols (e.g., encodinglayer(s) and/or symbol position(s) associated with the one or morewatermark symbols) indicate that the accessed/presented media has thesecond state. In some such examples, the timestamp determiner circuitry350 may determine that the second state implements a C7 media state,which may indicate that the accessed/presented RTVOD media is beingaccessed/presented within seven days of the initial publishing. In someexamples, at least one of the watermark detector circuitry 320, themedia identification determiner circuitry 330, and/or the SID determinercircuitry 340 may determine that the one or more watermark symbolsindicate the first media state, the second media state, etc.

The watermark decoder 124, 127 of the illustrated example includes thedatastore 370 to record data (e.g., the identifiers 374, the timestamps376, the watermarks 378, the media state(s), etc.). For example, thedatastore 370 may store the identifiers 374, which may includeidentifiers (e.g., media identifiers, SIDs, etc.) extracted from awatermark by the watermark detector circuitry 320 and/or identified bythe media identification determiner circuitry 330. The datastore 370 maystore the timestamps 376 determined by the timestamp determinercircuitry 350. The datastore 370 may store the watermarks 378 extractedby the watermark detector circuitry 320.

The datastore 370 may be implemented by a volatile memory (e.g., anSDRAM, a DRAM, an RDRAM, etc.) and/or a non-volatile memory (e.g., flashmemory). The datastore 370 may additionally or alternatively beimplemented by one or more DDR memories, such as DDR, DDR2, DDR3, DDR4,mDDR, etc. The datastore 370 may additionally or alternatively beimplemented by one or more mass storage devices such as HDD(s), CDdrive(s), DVD drive(s), SSD drive(s), etc. While in the illustratedexample the datastore 370 is illustrated as a single datastore, thedatastore 370 may be implemented by any number and/or type(s) ofdatastores. Furthermore, the data stored in the datastore 370 may be inany data format such as, for example, binary data, comma delimited data,tab delimited data, SQL structures, etc. In some examples, the datastore370 implements one or more databases.

In some examples, the watermark decoder 124, 127 includes means fordecoding media. For example, the means for decoding may be implementedby at least one of the interface circuitry 310, the watermark detectorcircuitry 320, the media identification determiner circuitry 330, theSID determiner circuitry 340, the timestamp generator circuitry 350, orthe datastore 370. In some examples, the at least one of the interfacecircuitry 310, the watermark detector circuitry 320, the mediaidentification determiner circuitry 330, the SID determiner circuitry340, the timestamp generator circuitry 350, or the datastore 370 may beinstantiated by processor circuitry such as the example processorcircuitry 1412 of FIG. 14 . For instance, the at least one of theinterface circuitry 310, the watermark detector circuitry 320, the mediaidentification determiner circuitry 330, the SID determiner circuitry340, the timestamp generator circuitry 350, or the datastore 370 may beinstantiated by the example general purpose processor circuitry 1700 ofFIG. 17 executing machine executable instructions such as thatimplemented by at least blocks 1010, 1012, 1014, 1016, 1018, 1022 ofFIG. 10 and/or blocks 1210, 1212, 1214, 1216, 1220 of FIG. 12 . In someexamples, the at least one of the interface circuitry 310, the watermarkdetector circuitry 320, the media identification determiner circuitry330, the SID determiner circuitry 340, the timestamp generator circuitry350, or the datastore 370 may be instantiated by hardware logiccircuitry, which may be implemented by an ASIC or the FPGA circuitry1800 of FIG. 18 structured to perform operations corresponding to themachine readable instructions. Additionally or alternatively, the atleast one of the interface circuitry 310, the watermark detectorcircuitry 320, the media identification determiner circuitry 330, theSID determiner circuitry 340, the timestamp generator circuitry 350, orthe datastore 370 may be instantiated by any other combination ofhardware, software, and/or firmware. For example, the at least one ofthe interface circuitry 310, the watermark detector circuitry 320, themedia identification determiner circuitry 330, the SID determinercircuitry 340, the timestamp generator circuitry 350, or the datastore370 may be implemented by at least one or more hardware circuits (e.g.,processor circuitry, discrete and/or integrated analog and/or digitalcircuitry, an FPGA, an Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC), acomparator, an operational-amplifier (op-amp), a logic circuit, etc.)structured to execute some or all of the machine readable instructionsand/or to perform some or all of the operations corresponding to themachine readable instructions without executing software or firmware,but other structures are likewise appropriate.

In some examples, the means for decoding is to, in response to an accessof the media file by a media device, extract the multilayered watermarkfrom audio of the media file, identify the first symbol at the firstsymbol position and the second symbol at the second symbol position,determine that the media file is accessed within a first time period ora second time period after a publishing of the media file by a mediaprovider based on the first symbol at the first symbol position and thesecond symbol at the second symbol position, and provide an indicationto a server that the media file is accessed within the first time periodor the second time period.

While an example manner of implementing the first watermark decoder 124of FIG. 1 and/or the second watermark decoder 127 of FIG. 1 isillustrated in FIG. 3 , one or more of the elements, processes, and/ordevices illustrated in FIG. 3 may be combined, divided, re-arranged,omitted, eliminated, and/or implemented in any other way. Further, theinterface circuitry 310, the watermark detector circuitry 320, the mediaidentification determiner circuitry 330, the SID determiner circuitry340, the timestamp determiner circuitry 350, the datastore 370, the bus380, and/or, more generally, the first watermark decoder 124 of FIG. 1and/or the second watermark decoder 127 of FIG. 1 , may be implementedby hardware, software, firmware, and/or any combination of hardware,software, and/or firmware. Thus, for example, any of the interfacecircuitry 310, the watermark detector circuitry 320, the mediaidentification determiner circuitry 330, the SID determiner circuitry340, the timestamp determiner circuitry 350, the datastore 370, the bus380, and/or, more generally, the first watermark decoder 124 of FIG. 1and/or the second watermark decoder 127 of FIG. 1 , could be implementedby processor circuitry, analog circuit(s), digital circuit(s), logiccircuit(s), programmable processor(s), programmable microcontroller(s),GPU(s), DSP(s), ASIC(s), PLD(s), and/or FPLD(s) such as FPGAs. Whenreading any of the apparatus or system claims of this patent to cover apurely software and/or firmware implementation, at least one of theinterface circuitry 310, the watermark detector circuitry 320, the mediaidentification determiner circuitry 330, the SID determiner circuitry340, the timestamp determiner circuitry 350, the datastore 370, and/orthe bus 380 is/are hereby expressly defined to include a non-transitorycomputer readable storage device or storage disk such as a memory, aDVD, a CD, a Blu-ray disk, etc., including the software and/or firmware.Further still, the first watermark decoder 124 of FIG. 1 and/or thesecond watermark decoder 127 of FIG. 1 may include one or more elements,processes, and/or devices in addition to, or instead of, thoseillustrated in FIG. 3 , and/or may include more than one of any or allof the illustrated elements, processes and devices.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram of an example implementation of the exampleAME 104 of FIG. 1 to associate accessed media with demographics (e.g.,demographic data) of users based on multilayered watermarks embedded inthe accessed media. The AME 104 of FIG. 4 may be instantiated byprocessor circuitry such as a central processing unit executinginstructions. Additionally or alternatively, the AME 104 of FIG. 4 maybe instantiated by an ASIC or an FPGA structured to perform operationscorresponding to the instructions.

The AME 104 of the illustrated example includes example interfacecircuitry 410, example watermark detector circuitry 420, example mediaidentification determiner circuitry 430, example source identification(SID) determiner circuitry 440, example timestamp determiner circuitry450, example demographic associator circuitry 460, an example datastore470, and an example bus 490. In this example, the datastore 470 includesexample media 472, example identifiers 474, example timestamps 476,example watermarks 478, and example demographic data 480. The interfacecircuitry 410, the watermark detector circuitry 420, the mediaidentification determiner circuitry 430, the SID determiner circuitry440, the timestamp determiner circuitry 450, the demographic associatorcircuitry 460, and the datastore 470 is/are in communication with one(s)of each other by the bus 490. For example, the bus 490 may beimplemented by at least one of an I2C bus, a SPI bus, a PCI, and/or aPCIe bus. Additionally or alternatively, the bus 490 may implement anyother type of computing or electrical bus.

The AME 104 of the illustrated example includes the interface circuitry410 to receive and/or transmit data. In some examples, the interfacecircuitry 410 receives and/or otherwise obtains data from the mediaprovider 102 and/or the watermark encoder 106, which may include themedia 472. In some examples, the interface circuitry 410 may transmitthe identifiers 474 and/or the timestamps 476 to the media provider 102and/or the watermark encoder 106. In some examples, the interfacecircuitry 410 may receive the identifiers 474, the timestamps 476,and/or the watermarks 478 from the first meter 120 and/or the secondmeter 126 via the second network 110. In some examples, the AME 104 maytransmit the demographic data 480 to the media provider 102.

In some examples, the interface circuitry 410 may implement a web serverthat receives and/or transmits data. In some examples, the interfacecircuitry 410 may receive and/or transmit data formatted as an HTTPmessage. However, any other message format and/or protocol mayadditionally or alternatively be used such as, for example, FTP, SMTP,HTTPS protocol, etc. In some examples, the interface circuitry 410 maybe implemented by hardware in accordance with any type of interfacestandard, such as an Ethernet interface, a USB interface, a Bluetooth®interface, an NFC interface, a PCI interface, and/or a PCIe interface.

The AME 104 of the illustrated example includes the watermark detectorcircuitry 420 to detect a watermark associated with media (e.g., themedia 472) accessed by the media presentation device 112 of FIG. 1 . Insome examples, the watermark detector circuitry 420 determines thatencoded media is accessed by the media presentation device 112 inresponse to a detection of a watermark embedded in audio generated bythe audio devices 132 of FIG. 1 . In some examples, the watermarkdetector circuitry 420 extracts watermarks from the audio. For example,the watermark detector circuitry 420 may extract a dense single ormultilayer watermark, a sparse single or multilayer watermark, etc.,from the audio. In some such examples, the first meter 120 and/or thesecond meter 126 may provide an audio sample or portion to the AME 104,and the watermark detector circuitry 420 may extract a watermark fromthe audio sample or portion.

In some examples, the watermark detector circuitry 420 identifiessymbol(s) at symbol position(s). For example, the watermark detectorcircuitry 420 may identify a first symbol at a first symbol position ofa first encoding layer of a multilayer watermark, a second symbol at asecond symbol position of a second encoding layer of the multilayerwatermark, etc. In some examples, the watermark detector circuitry 420determines whether to continue monitoring for access of encoded media bydevice(s) based on whether additional watermarks have been received bythe interface circuitry 410.

The AME 104 of the illustrated example includes the media identificationdeterminer circuitry 430 to determine whether a media identifier isincluded in a watermark. For example, the media identificationdeterminer circuitry 430 may determine that a watermark includes a mediaidentifier that identifies the media 472 based on detected symbol(s),symbol position(s) of the detected symbol(s), etc. In some suchexamples, the media identification determiner circuitry 430 may identifythe media 472 based on the media identifier.

The AME 104 of the illustrated example includes the SID determinercircuitry 440 to determine whether a SID is identified based on awatermark. For example, the SID determiner circuitry 440 may determinethat a watermark includes a SID that identifies a provider of theaccessed media based on detected symbol(s), symbol position(s) of thedetected symbol(s), etc. In some such examples, the SID determinercircuitry 440 may identify the provider of the accessed media based onthe SID.

The AME 104 of the illustrated example includes the timestamp determinercircuitry 450 to determine whether a timestamp is identified based on awatermark. For example, the timestamp determiner circuitry 450 maydetermine that a watermark includes timestamp data that identifies aportion of the media that the media presentation device 112 ispresenting based on detected symbol(s), symbol position(s) of thedetected symbol(s), etc. In some examples, the timestamp determinercircuitry 450 may determine a timestamp based on timestamp data that isencoded on multiple layers of a multilayer watermark. For example, thetimestamp determiner circuitry 450 may identify a first bit sequence ona first encoding layer of a multilayer watermark and a second bitsequence on a second encoding layer of the multilayer watermark. In somesuch examples, the timestamp determiner circuitry 450 may assemble,compile, and/or otherwise determine the timestamp encoded in the mediabased on the first bit sequence, the second bit sequence, etc., and/orcombination(s) thereof

In some examples, the timestamp determiner circuitry 450 may check,verify, and/or otherwise validate that the decoded timestamp is correctbased on one or more error check or parity bits included in at least oneof the first bit sequence or the second bit sequence. For example, thefirst bit sequence and/or the second bit sequence may include one ormore parity bits that, when decoded, may be used by the timestampdeterminer circuitry 450 to determine whether the timestamp is a validtimestamp.

In some examples, the timestamp determiner circuitry 450 may determinethat one(s) of the watermark symbols convey a state (e.g., a mediastate) of accessed media. For example, the timestamp determinercircuitry 450, based on a symbol position and/or encoding layer of oneor more watermark symbols, may determine that the one or more watermarksymbols convey and/or identify a first state (e.g., a first mediastate). In some such examples, the first state may correspond to mediabeing accessed and/or presented within a first time period after aninitial publishing of the media. In some such examples, the timestampdeterminer circuitry 450 may determine that the one or more watermarksymbols (e.g., encoding layer(s) and/or symbol position(s) associatedwith the one or more watermark symbols) indicate that theaccessed/presented media has the first state. In some such examples, thetimestamp determiner circuitry 450 may determine that the first stateimplements a C3 media state, which may indicate that theaccessed/presented RTVOD media is being accessed/presented within threedays of the initial publishing.

In some examples, the timestamp determiner circuitry 450, based on asymbol position and/or encoding layer of one or more watermark symbols,may determine that the one or more watermark symbols convey and/oridentify a second state (e.g., a second media state). In some suchexamples, the second state may correspond to media being accessed and/orpresented within a second time period after an initial publishing of themedia. In some such examples, the timestamp determiner circuitry 450 maydetermine that the one or more watermark symbols (e.g., encodinglayer(s) and/or symbol position(s) associated with the one or morewatermark symbols) indicate that the accessed/presented media has thesecond state. In some such examples, the timestamp determiner circuitry450 may determine that the second state implements a C7 media state,which may indicate that the accessed/presented RTVOD media is beingaccessed/presented within seven days of the initial publishing. In someexamples, at least one of the watermark detector circuitry 420, themedia identification determiner circuitry 430, and/or the SID determinercircuitry 440 may determine that the one or more watermark symbolsindicate the first media state, the second media state, etc.

The AME 104 of the illustrated example includes the demographicassociator circuitry 460 to associate demographics and accessed one(s)of the media 472. For example, a plurality of panelists including thepanelist 116 at the monitored site 130 may have provided theirrespective demographics to the AME 104. In some such examples, thedemographic associator circuitry 460 may receive the demographic data480 via a personal interview (by telephone or in person), a telephoneinterface, direct mailing, purchased lists, etc. Additionally oralternatively, the demographic data 480 may be obtained manually by aperson or group of people collecting and entering the registration datainto the datastore 470.

In some examples, the demographic data 480 includes informationidentifying the model of the first panelist device 114 and/or the secondpanelist device 118 associated with the panelist 116, a mailing addressassociated with the panelist 116, an email address associated with thepanelist 116, a phone number associated with a mobile device of thepanelist 116, a unique identifier of the panelist 116, the firstpanelist device 114, and/or the second panelist device 118 (e.g., asocial security number of the panelist 116, a phone number of a mobiledevice associated with the panelist 116, a zip code of the panelist 116,and/or any combination or derivation of any information related to thepanelist 116 and/or the mobile device), the age of the panelist 116, thegender of the panelist 116, the race of the panelist 116, the maritalstatus of the panelist 116, the income of the panelist 116 and/or thehousehold of the panelist 116, the employment status of the panelist116, where the panelist 116 typically intend to access the media 472,how long the panelist 116 typically accesses the media 472, theeducation level of the panelist 116, and/or any other informationrelated to the panelist 116.

In some examples, the demographic associator circuitry 460 may prepareand/or otherwise generate a report associating the demographic data andthe accessed one(s) of the media 472. In some examples, the demographicassociator circuitry 460 may generate a report identifying demographicsassociated with the panelist 116 via received monitoring information(e.g., the identifiers 474, the timestamps 476, the watermarks 478,etc.) from the first meter 120 and/or the second meter 126. For example,the demographic associator circuitry 460 may generate a reportassociating the demographic data 480 of the panelist 116 with accessedone(s) of the media 472. For example, the demographic associatorcircuitry 460 may credit the media 472 as having been accessed by thepanelist 116 by way of the media presentation device 112 of FIG. 1 .

The AME 104 of the illustrated example includes the datastore 470 torecord data (e.g., the media 472, the identifiers 474, the timestamps476, the watermarks 478, the demographic data 480, the media state(s),etc.). For example, the datastore 470 may store the media 472 obtainedfrom the media provider 102, the first meter 120, and/or the secondmeter 126. The datastore 470 may store the identifiers 474, which mayinclude identifiers (e.g., media identifiers, SIDs, etc.) obtained fromthe first meter 120 and/or the second meter 126. In some examples, thedatastore 470 may store the identifiers 474 extracted from a watermarkby the watermark detector circuitry 420 and/or identified by the mediaidentification determiner circuitry 430. The datastore 470 may store thetimestamps 476 obtained from the first meter 120 and/or the second meter126. In some examples, the datastore 470 may store the timestamps 476determined by the timestamp determiner circuitry 450. The datastore 470may store the watermarks 478 obtained from the first meter 120 and/orthe second meter 126. In some examples, the datastore 470 stores thewatermarks 478 extracted by the watermark detector circuitry 420.

The datastore 470 may be implemented by a volatile memory (e.g., anSDRAM, a DRAM, an RDRAM, etc.) and/or a non-volatile memory (e.g., flashmemory). The datastore 470 may additionally or alternatively beimplemented by one or more DDR memories, such as DDR, DDR2, DDR3, DDR4,mDDR, etc. The datastore 470 may additionally or alternatively beimplemented by one or more mass storage devices such as HDD(s), CDdrive(s), DVD drive(s), SSD drive(s), etc. While in the illustratedexample the datastore 470 is illustrated as a single datastore, thedatastore 470 may be implemented by any number and/or type(s) ofdatastores. Furthermore, the data stored in the datastore 470 may be inany data format such as, for example, binary data, comma delimited data,tab delimited data, SQL structures, etc. In some examples, the datastore470 implements one or more databases.

While an example manner of implementing the AME 104 of FIG. 1 isillustrated in FIG. 4 , one or more of the elements, processes, and/ordevices illustrated in FIG. 4 may be combined, divided, re-arranged,omitted, eliminated, and/or implemented in any other way. Further, theinterface circuitry 410, the watermark detector circuitry 420, the mediaidentification determiner circuitry 430, the SID determiner circuitry440, the timestamp determiner circuitry 450, the demographic associatorcircuitry 460, the datastore 470, the bus 490, and/or, more generally,the example AME 104 of FIG. 1 , may be implemented by hardware,software, firmware, and/or any combination of hardware, software, and/orfirmware. Thus, for example, any of the interface circuitry 410, thewatermark detector circuitry 420, the media identification determinercircuitry 430, the SID determiner circuitry 440, the timestampdeterminer circuitry 450, the demographic associator circuitry 460, thedatastore 470, the bus 490, and/or, more generally, the example AME 104,could be implemented by processor circuitry, analog circuit(s), digitalcircuit(s), logic circuit(s), programmable processor(s), programmablemicrocontroller(s), GPU(s), DSP(s), ASIC(s), PLD(s), and/or FPLD(s) suchas FPGAs. When reading any of the apparatus or system claims of thispatent to cover a purely software and/or firmware implementation, atleast one of the interface circuitry 410, the watermark detectorcircuitry 420, the media identification determiner circuitry 430, theSID determiner circuitry 440, the timestamp determiner circuitry 450,the demographic associator circuitry 460, the datastore 470, and/or thebus 490 is/are hereby expressly defined to include a non-transitorycomputer readable storage device or storage disk such as a memory, aDVD, a CD, a Blu-ray disk, etc., including the software and/or firmware.Further still, the example AME 104 of FIG. 1 may include one or moreelements, processes, and/or devices in addition to, or instead of, thoseillustrated in FIG. 4 , and/or may include more than one of any or allof the illustrated elements, processes and devices.

FIG. 5 depicts example watermarks 502, 504, 506, 508, 510 in encodedmedia 500 at different example frequency layers 512, 514, 516, 518. Insome examples, one(s) of the watermarks 502, 504, 506, 508, 510 may beimplemented by the watermarks 278 of FIG. 2 , the watermarks 378 of FIG.3 , and/or the watermarks 478 of FIG. 4 . The frequency layers 512, 514,516, 518 may correspond to respective ranges of frequencies at which thewatermarks 502, 504, 506, 508, 510 are to be encoded. For example, thefirst frequency layer 512 (identified by LAYER 1) may be implemented bya first range of frequencies, the second frequency layer 512 (identifiedby LAYER 2) may be implemented by a second range of frequencies, etc.,so that the first range of frequencies and the second range offrequencies do not overlap. In some examples, the watermarks 502, 504,506, 508, 510 may be encoded based on Reed-Solomon (RS) codes. Forexample, the frequency layers 512, 514, 516, 518 may be implemented byRS frequency layers. In some such examples, the first watermarks 502 maycorrespond to RS Layer 1 (L1) watermarks, the second watermarks 504 maycorrespond to RS Layer 2 (L2) watermarks, etc. Advantageously, thewatermarks 502, 504, 506, 508, 510 may be encoded using frequencydivision multiplexing because of the different frequency layers 512,514, 516, 518.

In some examples, the encoded media 500 may be a media file encoded bythe watermark encoder 106 of FIG. 1 . For example, the watermark encoder106 may encode the first frequency layer 512 with the first watermarks502, the second frequency layer 514 with the second watermarks 504, etc.In the illustrated example, the watermark encoder 106 may generate densewatermarks. For example, the watermark encoder 106 may generate thefirst watermarks 502 as dense single layer watermarks by generating thefirst watermarks 502 as having a single encoding layer in which all or asubstantial portion of symbol positions of the first watermarks 502 arefilled with symbols. In some examples, the watermark encoder 106 maygenerate the second watermarks 504 and the fifth watermarks 510 as densesingle layer watermarks. In some examples, the watermark encoder 106 maygenerate the third watermarks 506 as dense multilayered watermarks bygenerating the third watermarks 506 as having at least a first layer(LAYER A) and a second layer (LAYER B) in which all or a substantialportion of symbol positions of the first layer and the second layer arefilled with symbols.

In some examples, the watermark encoder 106 may generate watermarks atthe fourth frequency layer 516 that indicate different states of mediapresentation. For example, the watermark encoder 106 may generate thethird watermarks 506 to indicate whether presented media is a televisionprogram, a commercial, etc., by encoding identifiers that identify media(e.g., a first identifier that identifies presented media as atelevision program, a second identifier that identifies presented mediaas a commercial, etc.). In some examples, the watermark encoder 106 maygenerate the fourth watermarks 508 to convey on-demand media accessstates, such as RTVOD media access states. For example, the watermarkencoder 106 may generate the fourth watermarks 508 to indicate on-demandmedia access states by encoding a pattern of symbols across the multiplelayers of the fourth watermarks 508. In some such examples, thewatermark encoder 106 may encode the pattern to indicate a firston-demand media access state that the encoded media 500 is to beaccessed within a first time period (e.g., within three days after apremiere of the encoded media 500 for access by viewers on-demand). Insome examples, the watermark encoder 106 may encode the pattern toindicate a second on-demand media access state that the encoded media500 is to be accessed within a second time period (e.g., within sevendays after a premiere of the encoded media 500 for access by viewerson-demand), etc.

In the illustrated example, the watermark encoder 106 may generatesparse watermarks. For example, the watermark encoder 106 may generatethe fourth watermarks 508 as sparse multilayer watermarks by generatingthe fourth watermarks 508 as having at least a first layer (LAYER A) anda second layer (LAYER B) in which a substantial portion of symbolpositions of the fourth watermarks 508 are not filled with a symbol. Insome such examples, the watermark encoder 106 may generate the fourthwatermarks 508 by inserting a first symbol at a first symbol position ofa plurality of first symbol positions on the first encoding layer of afirst one of the fourth watermarks 508 (identified by L4-RTVOD LAYER A)and a second symbol at a second symbol position of a plurality of secondsymbol positions on the second encoding layer on the first one of thefourth watermarks 508 (identified by L4-RTVOD LAYER B). In some suchexamples, the watermark encoder 106 may not insert a symbol at one ormore symbol positions of the remaining first symbol positions and/or theremaining second symbol positions.

FIG. 6 depicts an example dense single-layer watermark 600 and anexample dense multilayer watermark 620. In some examples, the densesingle-layer watermark 600 and/or the dense multilayer watermark 620 mayimplement one(s) of the watermarks 278 of FIG. 2 , the watermarks 378 ofFIG. 3 , and/or the watermarks 478 of FIG. 4 . In some examples, thedense single-layer watermark 600 may implement one(s) of the firstwatermarks 502, the second watermarks 504, and/or the fifth watermarks510 of FIG. 5 . In the illustrated example, the dense single-layerwatermark 600 is placed on a single watermark encoding layer (e.g., anaudio watermarking layer, an audio encoding layer, etc.).

In the illustrated example, the dense single-layer watermark 600includes a first example bit sequence 610, which includes first examplesymbols 612 (hereinafter 612A, 612B, 612C, 612D, 612E, 612F, 612G, 612H)at example symbol positions 614 (hereinafter symbol positions 0, 1, 2,3, 4, 5, 6, 7) during an example time window 616. For example, the firstsymbols 612 are positioned in the dense single-layer watermark 600 to besubstantially simultaneously read and/or parsed out from media. In otherwords, the first bit sequence 610 is to be simultaneously read and/orparsed in parallel by the first meter 120 and/or the second meter 126 ofFIG. 1 .

In this example, the first bit sequence 610 includes eight symbols.However, any appropriate number of bits and/or symbols can beimplemented instead. Further, the first bit sequence 610 may beimplemented on (e.g., embedded in) any appropriate file type including,but not limited to, audio files, video files, encoded transmissions,file downloads, etc. In the illustrated example, the dense single-layerwatermark 600 is dense because there is a watermark symbol at each ofthe symbol positions. Alternatively, in some examples, the densesingle-layer watermark 600 may be dense if there is a watermark symbolat a substantial number of the symbol positions.

In some examples, the dense multilayer watermark 620 may implementone(s) of the third watermarks 506 and/or the fourth watermarks 508 ofFIG. 5 . In the illustrated example, the dense multilayer watermark 620is placed on multiple separate watermark encoding layers (e.g., separateaudio watermarking layers, separate audio encoding layers, etc.). Insome examples, a multilayer audio watermark, such as the densemultilayer watermark 620 of FIG. 6 , can include multiple audiowatermarking layers (also called audio encoding layers) in whichdifferent layers use frequency components from different frequencyranges or groups of frequency ranges (e.g., frequency components fromdifferent groups of frequency bins) of the audio signal/file to encodewatermark symbols in their respective layers. For example, a first audiowatermarking layer may use frequency components selected from a firstgroup of frequency bins to encode a first set of watermark symbols inthe audio signal/file, and a second audio watermarking layer may usefrequency components selected from a second group of frequency bins toencode a second set of watermark symbols in the audio signal/file, withat least some of the frequency bins in the first and second groups beingdifferent. Advantageously, frequency components that have improveddetection capability in acoustic environments may be selected to conveyinformation (e.g., a media identifier, a timestamp, etc.) to increase alikelihood of detecting such a watermark. In the illustrated example,the dense multilayer watermark 620 includes a first example layer 622(e.g., a first audio watermarking layer identified by LAYER A) and asecond example layer 624 (e.g., a second audio watermarking layeridentified by LAYER B).

In the illustrated example, the dense multilayer watermark 620 includesa second example bit sequence 630, which includes second example symbols632 (hereinafter 632A, 632B, 632C, 632D, 632E, 632F, 632G, 632H) atexample symbol positions 634 (hereinafter symbol positions 0, 1, 2, 3,4, 5, 6, 7) during an example time window 636. In the illustratedexample, the dense multilayer watermark 620 includes a third example bitsequence 640, which includes third example symbols 642 (hereinafter642A, 642B, 642C, 642D, 642E, 642F, 642G, 642H) at example symbolpositions 644 (hereinafter symbol positions 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7)during the time window 636. For example, the second symbols 632 and thethird symbols 642 are positioned in the dense multilayer watermark 620to be substantially simultaneously read and/or parsed out from media. Inother words, the second bit sequence 630 and the third bit sequence 640are to be simultaneously read and/or parsed in parallel by the firstmeter 120 and/or the second meter 126.

In this example, the second bit sequence 630 and the third bit sequence640 each include eight symbols. However, any appropriate number of bitsand/or symbols can be implemented instead for the second bit sequence630 and/or the third bit sequence 640. Further, the second bit sequence630 and/or the third bit sequence 640 may be implemented on (e.g.,embedded in) any appropriate file type including, but not limited to,audio files, video files, encoded transmissions, file downloads, etc. Inthe illustrated example, the dense multilayer watermark 620 is densebecause there is a watermark symbol at each of the symbol positions.Alternatively, in some examples, the dense multilayer watermark 620 maybe dense if there is a watermark symbol at a substantial number of thesymbol positions of the first layer 622 and/or the second layer 624.

FIG. 7 depicts a first example sparse multilayer watermark 700 and asecond example sparse multilayer watermark 730. In some examples, thefirst sparse multilayer watermark 700 and/or the second sparsemultilayer watermark 730 may implement one(s) of the watermarks 278 ofFIG. 2 , the watermarks 378 of FIG. 3 , and/or the watermarks 478 ofFIG. 4 . In some examples, the first sparse multilayer watermark 700and/or the second sparse multilayer watermark 730 may implement one(s)of the third watermarks 506 and/or the fourth watermarks 508 of FIG. 5 .In the illustrated example, the first sparse multilayer watermark 700and the second sparse multilayer watermark 730 are placed on multipleseparate watermark encoding layers (e.g., separate audio watermarkinglayers, separate audio encoding layers, etc.) including a first examplelayer 702 (e.g., a first audio watermarking layer identified by LAYER A)and a second example layer 704 (e.g., a second audio watermarking layeridentified by LAYER B).

In the illustrated example, the first sparse multilayer watermark 700includes a first example bit sequence 710, which includes a firstexample symbol 712 and a second example symbol 714 at respective ones ofexample symbol positions 716 (hereinafter symbol positions 0, 1, 2, 3,4, 5, 6, 7) during an example time window 718. In the illustratedexample, the first sparse multilayer watermark 700 includes a secondexample bit sequence 720, which includes a third example symbol 722 anda fourth example symbol 724 at respective ones of the symbol positions716 during the time window 718.

In the illustrated example, the first symbol 712 and the second symbol714 are the same. Alternatively, the first symbol 712 and the secondsymbol 714 may be different from each other. In the illustrated example,the first symbol 712 is at and/or otherwise caused to be inserted atsymbol position 0 of the first layer 702 and the second symbol 714 is atand/or otherwise caused to be inserted at symbol position 2 of the firstlayer 702. In the illustrated example, the third symbol 722 and thefourth symbol 724 are the same. Alternatively, the third symbol 722 andthe fourth symbol 724 may be different from each other. In theillustrated example, the third symbol 722 is at and/or otherwise causedto be inserted at symbol position 4 of the second layer 704 and thefourth symbol 724 is at and/or otherwise caused to be inserted at symbolposition 7 of the second layer 704.

In the illustrated example, the first bit sequence 710 and the secondbit sequence 720 each include two symbols. However, any appropriatenumber of bits and/or symbols can be implemented instead for the firstbit sequence 710 and/or the second bit sequence 720. Further, the firstbit sequence 710 and/or the second bit sequence 720 may be implementedon (e.g., embedded in) any appropriate file type including, but notlimited to, audio files, video files, encoded transmissions, filedownloads, etc. In the illustrated example, the first sparse multilayerwatermark 700 is sparse because there is a watermark symbol missing atone or more of the symbol positions 716. In this example, the firstlayer 702 is missing a watermark symbol at symbol positions 1, 3, 4, 5,6, and 7 while the second layer 704 is missing a watermark symbol atsymbol positions 0, 1, 2, 3, 5, and 6. For example, symbol positions 1,3, 4, 5, 6, and 7 on the first layer 702 are empty because a watermarksymbol is not encoded, embedded, etc., at those symbol positions. In theillustrated example, symbol positions 0, 1, 2, 3, 5, and 6 on the secondlayer 704 are empty because a watermark symbol is not encoded, embedded,etc., at those symbol positions. Alternatively, the first layer 702and/or the second layer 704 may have fewer or more empty symbolpositions than depicted in the illustrated example.

In the illustrated example, the first symbol 712, the second symbol 714,the third symbol 722, and the fourth symbol 724 are positioned amongstthe symbol positions 716 of the first layer 702 and/or the second layer704 to indicate a first media state. For example, the first meter 120and/or the second meter 126 of FIG. 1 may determine that media presentedby the media presentation device 112 of FIG. 1 is being accessed withina first time period of the media being made available on an on-demandplatform. In some examples, the first sparse multilayer watermark 700may implement a C3 watermark, which may indicate that media embeddedwith the first sparse multilayer watermark 700 is associated with mediain the first media state of being accessed within three days (or adifferent number of days) after the media premiered on an on-demandplatform.

In the illustrated example, the second sparse multilayer watermark 730includes a third example bit sequence 740, which includes a fifthexample symbol 742 and a sixth example symbol 744 at a respective one ofthe symbol positions 716 during the time window 718. In the illustratedexample, the second sparse multilayer watermark 730 includes a thirdexample bit sequence 750, which includes a seventh example symbol 752and an eighth example symbol 754 at a respective one of the symbolpositions 716 during the time window 718.

In the illustrated example, the fifth symbol 742 and the sixth symbol744 are the same. Alternatively, the fifth symbol 742 and the sixthsymbol 744 may be different from each other. In the illustrated example,the fifth symbol 742 is at and/or otherwise caused to be inserted atsymbol position 3 of the first layer 702 and the sixth symbol 744 is atand/or otherwise caused to be inserted at symbol position 6 of the firstlayer 702. In the illustrated example, the seventh symbol 752 and theeighth symbol 754 are the same. Alternatively, the seventh symbol 752and the eighth symbol 754 may be different from each other. In theillustrated example, the seventh symbol 752 is at and/or otherwisecaused to be inserted at symbol position 1 of the second layer 704 andthe eighth symbol 754 is at and/or otherwise caused to be inserted atsymbol position 5 of the second layer 704.

In the illustrated example, the third bit sequence 740 and the fourthbit sequence 750 each include two symbols. However, any appropriatenumber of bits and/or symbols can be implemented instead for the thirdbit sequence 740 and/or the fourth bit sequence 750. Further, the thirdbit sequence 740 and/or the fourth bit sequence 750 may be implementedon (e.g., embedded in) any appropriate file type including, but notlimited to, audio files, video files, encoded transmissions, filedownloads, etc. In the illustrated example, the second sparse multilayerwatermark 730 is sparse because there is a watermark symbol missing atone or more of the symbol positions 716. In this example, the firstlayer 702 is missing a watermark symbol at symbol positions 0, 1, 2, 4,5, and 7 the second layer 704 is missing a watermark symbol at symbolpositions 0, 2, 3, 4, 6, and 7. For example, symbol positions 0, 1, 2,4, 5, and 7 on the first layer 702 are empty because a watermark symbolis not encoded, embedded, etc., at those symbol positions. In theillustrated example, symbol positions 0, 2, 3, 4, 6, and 7 on the secondlayer 704 are empty because a watermark symbol is not encoded, embedded,etc., at those symbol positions. Alternatively, the first layer 702and/or the second layer 704 may have fewer or more empty symbolpositions than depicted in the illustrated example.

In the illustrated example, the fifth symbol 742, the sixth symbol 744,the seventh symbol 752, and the eighth symbol 754 are positioned amongstthe symbol positions 716 of the first layer 702 and/or the second layer704 to indicate a second media state. For example, the first meter 120and/or the second meter 126 of FIG. 1 may determine that media presentedby the media presentation device 112 of FIG. 1 is being accessed withina second time period of the media being made available on an on-demandplatform. In some examples, the second sparse multilayer watermark 730may implement a C7 watermark, which may indicate that media embeddedwith the second sparse multilayer watermark 730 is associated with mediain the first media state of being accessed within seven days (or adifferent number of days) after the media premiered on an on-demandplatform.

FIG. 8 depicts an example single-layer watermark 800 that the firstmeter 120 and/or the second meter 126 may be configured to detect. Insome examples, the single-layer watermark 800 may implement one(s) ofthe watermarks 278 of FIG. 2 , the watermarks 378 of FIG. 3 , and/or thewatermarks 478 of FIG. 4 . The single-layer watermark 800 of theillustrated is embedded or otherwise included in media to be presentedby media device(s), such as the media presentation device 112 of FIG. 1. For example, the single-layer watermark 800 may be embedded in anaudio portion (e.g., an audio data portion, an audio signal portion,etc.) of the media, a video portion (e.g., a video data portion, a videosignal portion, etc.) of the media, or a combination thereof. Thesingle-layer watermark 800 includes a first example group of symbols 805and a second example group of symbols 810. In some examples, the firstgroup of symbols 805 may be repeated in successive watermarks 800embedded/included in the media, whereas the second group of symbols 810differs between successive watermarks 800 embedded/included in themedia.

In the single-layer watermark 800 of the illustrated example, the firstgroup of symbols 805 conveys media identification data (e.g., a mediaidentifier identified by MEDIA ID) identifying the media watermarked bythe single-layer watermark 800. For example, the media identificationdata conveyed by the first group of symbols 805 may include dataidentifying a provider (e.g., a broadcast station, an on-demand mediaprovider, a streaming media provider, etc.) providing the media, a name(e.g., program name) of the media, a source (e.g., a media platform, awebsite, etc.) of the media, etc. Thus, in the illustrated example, thefirst group of symbols 805 is also referred to as a first group of mediaidentification symbols 805 (or simply the media identification symbols805). Furthermore, in some examples, the media identification dataconveyed by the first group of symbols 805 (e.g., the mediaidentification symbols 805) may be repeated in successive single-layerwatermarks 800 embedded/included in the media.

In some examples, the first group of symbols 805 of the single-layerwatermark 800 includes example marker symbols 815A, 815B to assist thewatermark decoders 124, 127 of FIGS. 1 and/or 3 in detecting the startof the single-layer watermark 800 in the watermarked media, and exampledata symbols 820A-F to convey the media identification data. Also, insome examples, corresponding symbols pairs in similar respectivelocations after the first marker symbol 815A and the second markersymbol 815B are related by an offset. For example, the value of datasymbol 820D may correspond to the value of data symbol 820A incrementedby an offset, the value of data symbol 820E may correspond to the valueof data symbol 820B incremented by the same offset, and the value ofdata symbol 820F may correspond to the value of data symbol 820Cincremented by the same offset, as well.

In the illustrated example, the second group of symbols 810 conveystimestamp data (e.g., a timestamp, a time-in content (TIC) value, etc.)identifying, for example, a particular elapsed time within thewatermarked media. Thus, in the illustrated example, the second group ofsymbols 810 is also referred to as the second group of timestamp symbols810 (or simply the timestamp symbols 810). Furthermore, in someexamples, the timestamp data conveyed by the second group of symbols 810(e.g., the timestamp symbols 810) differs in successive single-layerwatermarks 800 embedded/included in the media (e.g., as the elapsed timeof the watermarked media increases with each successive single-layerwatermark 800). In some examples, the timestamp based on the timestampsymbols 810 may implement one(s) of the timestamps 276 of FIG. 2 , thetimestamps 376 of FIG. 3 , and/or the timestamps 476 of FIG. 4 .

In some examples, the single-layer watermark 800 is embedded/included inthe desired media at a repetition interval of T seconds (or, in otherwords, at a repetition rate of 1/T seconds), with the first group ofsymbols 805 remaining the same in successive single-layer watermarks800, and the second group of symbols 810 varying in successivesingle-layer watermarks 800. For example, the repetition interval T maycorrespond to T=4.8 seconds. As there are 12 symbols in the depictedsingle-layer watermark 800 (e.g., 8 symbols in the first group ofsymbols 805 and 4 symbols in the second group of symbols 810) eachwatermark symbol in the illustrated example has a duration of 4.8/12=0.4seconds. However, other values for the repetition interval T may be usedin other examples.

In some examples, a watermark symbol included in the single-layerwatermark 800 is able to take on one of several possible symbol values.For example, if a symbol in the single-layer watermark 800 represents 4bits of data, then the symbol is able to take on one of 16 differentpossible values. For example, each possible symbol value may correspondto a different signal amplitude, a different set of code frequencies,etc. In some such examples, to detect a watermark symbolembedded/included in watermarked media, the watermark decoders 124, 127process monitored media data/signals output from the media presentationdevice 112 to determine measured values (e.g., signal-to-noise ratio(SNR) values) corresponding to each possible symbol value the symbol mayhave. The watermark decoders 124, 127 may then select the symbol valuecorresponding to the best (e.g., strongest, largest, etc.) measuredvalue (possibly after averaging across multiple samples of the mediadata/signal) as the detected symbol value for that particular watermarksymbol.

FIG. 9 depicts an example multilayer watermark 900 including firstexample symbols 902, second example symbols 904, and third examplesymbols 906 at example symbol positions 907 during an example timewindow 908. In some examples, the multilayer watermark 900 may implementone(s) of the watermarks 278 of FIG. 2 , the watermarks 378 of FIG. 3 ,and/or the watermarks 478 of FIG. 4 . In this example, there are twelveof the symbol positions 907. Alternatively, the multilayer watermark 900may include fewer or more symbol positions. In this example, the firstsymbols 902 and the second symbols 904 are on the second frequency layer514 of FIG. 5 . Alternatively, the first symbols 902 and/or the secondsymbols 904 may be on a different frequency layer. In this example, thefirst symbols 902 and the third symbols 906 are on the fifth frequencylayer 518 of FIG. 5 . Alternatively, the first symbols 902 and/or thethird symbols 906 may be on a different frequency layer.

In the illustrated example, the first symbols 902 implement an examplemedia identifier 910 that identifies media that may be accessed and/orotherwise presented by the media presentation device 112 of FIG. 1 . Inthe illustrated example, the first symbols 902 are inserted at symbolpositions 0-7 of the symbol positions 907. Alternatively, the firstsymbols 902 may be inserted, encoded, etc., at different one(s) of thesymbol positions 907. In the illustrated example, the first symbols 902are the same in the second frequency layer 514 and the fifth frequencylayer 518 so that the watermark decoders 124, 127 may identify that thesecond symbols 904 and the third symbols 906 are associated with eachother and/or otherwise are to be processed in connection with eachother.

In the illustrated example, the second symbols 904 and the third symbols906 implement at least one of timestamp data or parity data. Forexample, the multilayer watermark 900 may implement a video-on demand(VOD) watermark that may be embedded in media accessible on a libraryVOD platform. In some such examples, the multilayer watermark 900 mayinclude data to convey at least one of a media identifier thatidentifies media and timestamp data that identifies an elapsed time ofthe media. In the illustrated example, the second symbols 904 and thethird symbols 906 are inserted, encoded, etc., at symbol positions 9-12of the symbol positions 907. Alternatively, the second symbols 904and/or the third symbols 906 may be inserted at different one(s) of thesymbol positions 907. In some examples, the timestamp data may implementone(s) of the timestamps 276 of FIG. 2 , the timestamps 376 of FIG. 3 ,and/or the timestamps 476 of FIG. 4 .

In the illustrated example, the timestamp data may be encoded acrossmultiple layers of the multilayer watermark 900, such as the secondfrequency layer 514 and the fifth frequency layer 518 of FIG. 5 . Insome examples, the timestamp data may be encoded across multiple layersbecause the timestamp data may require a number of bits that exceeds abandwidth of a single layer. For example, the timestamp data may require30 is of data while each encoding layer may support 16 bits of data. Insome such examples, the 30 bits of timestamp data can be supported by atleast two encoding layers.

In some examples, the watermark encoder 106 of FIG. 1 may encode thetimestamp data across multiple layers of the multilayer watermark 900.For example, the timestamp generator circuitry 240 of FIG. 2 maydetermine a timestamp of the media and partition the timestamp intotimestamp portions. In some such examples, the timestamp generatorcircuitry 240 may convert the timestamp data into a timestamp bitstream,and partition the timestamp bitstream into first bits and second bits.In some such examples, the timestamp generator circuitry 240 mayidentify the first bits as the least significant bits of the timestampbitstream and the second bits as the most significant bits of thetimestamp bitstream. For example, the timestamp generator circuitry 240may identify the first bits as example timestamp least significant bits912 and the second bits as a portion of example timestamp mostsignificant bits and parity bits 914. In some such examples, thetimestamp generator circuitry 240 may generate the parity bits tofacilitate error detection of decoding the multilayer watermark 900.

In some examples, the timestamp generator circuitry 240 may determinethe timestamp bitstream by obtaining a first timestamp in a time secondformat. For example, the timestamp may have a value of “150” torepresent 150 seconds. In some examples, the timestamp generatorcircuitry 240 may convert the first timestamp in time second format to asecond timestamp in time minute format. In some such examples, the timesecond format may implement a second level, a per-second incrementbasis, etc., (e.g., successive timestamps being incremented at thesecond level including a first timestamp of 18 seconds, a secondtimestamp of 19 seconds, a third timestamp of 20 seconds, etc.). In somesuch examples, the time minute format may implement a minute level, aper-minute increment basis, etc., (e.g., successive timestamps beingincremented at the minute level including a first timestamp of 10minutes, a second timestamp of 11 minutes, a third timestamp of 12minutes, etc.). For example, the timestamp generator circuitry 240 mayconvert the first timestamp (timestamp_(minute)) into the secondtimestamp (timestamp_(second)) based on the example of Equation (1)below:

$\begin{matrix}{{{{times}{tamp}_{Minute}} = {{floor}\left( \frac{{timestamp}_{second}}{60} \right)}},} & {{Equation}(1)}\end{matrix}$

In some examples, the timestamp generator circuitry 240 may determinethe timestamp bitstream by determining a first value based on the secondtimestamp and a range of timestamps (timestamp_(range)) based on theexample of Equation (2) below:

$\begin{matrix}{{{L2_{BASE}} = {{floor}\left( \frac{{timestamp}_{minute}}{{timestamp}_{range}} \right)}},} & {{Equation}(2)}\end{matrix}$

For example, the range of timestamps may represent a range of validtimestamps (e.g., a range of 0-40,320 to represent the number of minutesin a 28-day time period) before a rollover occurs. In some suchexamples, the range of timestamps may be implemented by a range oftimestamps based on Unix time.

In some examples, the timestamp generator circuitry 240 may determinethe timestamp bitstream by determining a second value based on thesecond timestamp, the first value, and the range of timestamps based onthe example of Equation (3) below:

L5_(VAL)=timestamp_(minute)−(timestamp_(range) *L2_(base)),   Equation(3)

In some examples, the timestamp generator circuitry 240 may generate afirst bit sequence to be inserted into a first encoding layer of amultilayer watermark based on the second value. For example, thetimestamp generator circuitry 240 may determine L5_(VAL) to correspondto the timestamp least significant bits 912 of FIG. 9 . In some suchexamples, at least one of the dense watermark embedder circuitry 250 orthe sparse watermark embedder circuitry 260 may generate the first bitsequence by converting L5_(VAL) into a binary value. In some suchexamples, at least one of the dense watermark embedder circuitry 250 orthe sparse watermark embedder circuitry 260 may encode the binary valueinto the fifth frequency layer 518 of the multilayer watermark 900. Insome such examples, L5_(VAL) may correspond to a layer 5 value(L5_(VAL)) to be used to determine the least significant bits of thetimestamp bitstream.

In some examples, the timestamp generator circuitry 240 may determinethe timestamp bitstream by determining a third value based on a sum ofthe first value and the second value based on the example of Equation(4) below:

PARITY=(L ² _(BASE) +L5_(VAL)) & 0x07F,   Equation (4)

For example, the timestamp generator circuitry 240 may determine aparity value (PARITY), which may be converted to one or more paritybits, based on the sum of L2_(BASE) and L5_(VAL) shifted by an offsetvalue (e.g., a hex value of 0x0F). Advantageously, in some suchexamples, the timestamp generator circuitry 240 may shift the sum by thehex value of 0x0F to ensure that an increment in the timestamp in minuteformat adjusts the least significant bits and the most significant bitsof the timestamp bitstream, which may facilitate the error checkingprocess.

In some examples, the timestamp generator circuitry 240 may determinethe timestamp bitstream by generating a second bit sequence to beinserted into a second encoding layer of a multilayered watermark basedon the first value and the parity bits based on the example of Equation(5) below:

L3_(VAL)=(L ² _(BASE)*128)+PARITY,   Equation (5)

For example, the timestamp generator circuitry 240 may determineL2_(VAL) to correspond to the timestamp most significant bits and paritybits 914 of FIG. 9 . In some such examples, at least one of the densewatermark embedder circuitry 250 or the sparse watermark embeddercircuitry 260 may generate the second bit sequence by convertingL2_(VAL) into a binary value. In some such examples, at least one of thedense watermark embedder circuitry 250 or the sparse watermark embeddercircuitry 260 may encode the binary value into the second frequencylayer 514 of the multilayer watermark 900. In some such examples,L2_(VAL) may correspond to a layer 2 value (L2_(VAL)) to be used todetermine the most significant bits and the parity bits of the timestampbitstream.

In some examples, at least one of the dense watermark embedder circuitry250 or the sparse watermark embedder circuitry 260 may encode the firstbit sequence into the fifth frequency layer 518 and the second bitsequence into the second frequency layer 514. In some examples, at leastone of the dense watermark embedder circuitry 250 or the sparsewatermark embedder circuitry 260, and/or, more generally, the watermarkencoder 106, may provide the encoded media to the media provider 102,the AME 104, and/or the media presentation device 112. In some examples,the watermark decoders 124, 127 of FIG. 1 , and/or, more generally, thefirst meter 120 and/or the second meter 126 of FIG. 1 , may identify atleast one of the first symbols 902, the second symbols 904, or the thirdsymbols 906. For example, the media identification determiner circuitry330 of FIG. 3 may identify the media identifier 910 in response to adetection of the first symbols 902 by the watermark detector circuitry320 of FIG. 3 . In some examples, the timestamp determiner circuitry 350of FIG. 3 may identify the most significant bits of the timestamp andthe parity bits in response to a detection of the second symbols 904 bythe watermark detector circuitry 320. In some examples, the timestampdeterminer circuitry 350 may identify the least significant bits of thetimestamp in response to a detection of the third symbols 906 by thewatermark detector circuitry 320. In some examples, the timestampdeterminer circuitry 350 may determine the timestamp based on thedecoded ones of the most significant bits and the least significantbits. Advantageously, the timestamp determiner circuitry 350 may verify,validate, etc., an accuracy of the timestamp based on the parity bits.

Flowcharts representative of example hardware logic circuitry, machinereadable instructions, hardware implemented state machines, and/or anycombination thereof for implementing the watermark encoder 106 of FIGS.1 and/or 2 , the first watermark decoder 124 of FIGS. 1 and/or 3 , thesecond watermark decoder 127 of FIGS. 1 and/or 3 , and/or the AME 104 ofFIGS. 1 and/or 4 are shown in FIGS. 10-13 . The machine readableinstructions may be one or more executable programs or portion(s) of anexecutable program for execution by processor circuitry, such as theprocessor circuitry 1412 shown in the example processor platform 1400discussed below in connection with FIG. 14 , the processor circuitry1512 shown in the example processor platform 1500 discussed below inconnection with FIG. 15 , the processor circuitry 1612 shown in theexample processor platform 1600 discussed below in connection with FIG.16 , and/or the example processor circuitry discussed below inconnection with FIGS. 17 and/or 18 . The program may be embodied insoftware stored on one or more non-transitory computer readable storagemedia such as a CD, a floppy disk, an HDD, an SSD, a DVD, a Blu-raydisk, a volatile memory (e.g., Random Access Memory (RAM) of any type,etc.), or a non-volatile memory (e.g., electrically erasableprogrammable read-only memory (EEPROM), FLASH memory, an HDD, an SSD,etc.) associated with processor circuitry located in one or morehardware devices, but the entire program and/or parts thereof couldalternatively be executed by one or more hardware devices other than theprocessor circuitry and/or embodied in firmware or dedicated hardware.The machine readable instructions may be distributed across multiplehardware devices and/or executed by two or more hardware devices (e.g.,a server and a client hardware device). For example, the client hardwaredevice may be implemented by an endpoint client hardware device (e.g., ahardware device associated with a user) or an intermediate clienthardware device (e.g., a radio access network (RAN)) gateway that mayfacilitate communication between a server and an endpoint clienthardware device). Similarly, the non-transitory computer readablestorage media may include one or more mediums located in one or morehardware devices. Further, although the example program is describedwith reference to the flowcharts illustrated in FIGS. 10-13 , many othermethods of implementing the watermark encoder 106, the first watermarkdecoder 124, the second watermark decoder 127, and/or the AME 104 mayalternatively be used. For example, the order of execution of the blocksmay be changed, and/or some of the blocks described may be changed,eliminated, or combined. Additionally or alternatively, any or all ofthe blocks may be implemented by one or more hardware circuits (e.g.,processor circuitry, discrete and/or integrated analog and/or digitalcircuitry, an FPGA, an ASIC, a comparator, an operational-amplifier(op-amp), a logic circuit, etc.) structured to perform the correspondingoperation without executing software or firmware. The processorcircuitry may be distributed in different network locations and/or localto one or more hardware devices (e.g., a single-core processor (e.g., asingle core central processor unit (CPU)), a multi-core processor (e.g.,a multi-core CPU), etc.) in a single machine, multiple processorsdistributed across multiple servers of a server rack, multipleprocessors distributed across one or more server racks, a CPU and/or aFPGA located in the same package (e.g., the same integrated circuit (IC)package or in two or more separate housings, etc.).

The machine readable instructions described herein may be stored in oneor more of a compressed format, an encrypted format, a fragmentedformat, a compiled format, an executable format, a packaged format, etc.Machine readable instructions as described herein may be stored as dataor a data structure (e.g., as portions of instructions, code,representations of code, etc.) that may be utilized to create,manufacture, and/or produce machine executable instructions. Forexample, the machine readable instructions may be fragmented and storedon one or more storage devices and/or computing devices (e.g., servers)located at the same or different locations of a network or collection ofnetworks (e.g., in the cloud, in edge devices, etc.). The machinereadable instructions may require one or more of installation,modification, adaptation, updating, combining, supplementing,configuring, decryption, decompression, unpacking, distribution,reassignment, compilation, etc., in order to make them directlyreadable, interpretable, and/or executable by a computing device and/orother machine. For example, the machine readable instructions may bestored in multiple parts, which are individually compressed, encrypted,and/or stored on separate computing devices, wherein the parts whendecrypted, decompressed, and/or combined form a set of machineexecutable instructions that implement one or more operations that maytogether form a program such as that described herein.

In another example, the machine readable instructions may be stored in astate in which they may be read by processor circuitry, but requireaddition of a library (e.g., a dynamic link library (DLL)), a softwaredevelopment kit (SDK), an application programming interface (API), etc.,in order to execute the machine readable instructions on a particularcomputing device or other device. In another example, the machinereadable instructions may need to be configured (e.g., settings stored,data input, network addresses recorded, etc.) before the machinereadable instructions and/or the corresponding program(s) can beexecuted in whole or in part. Thus, machine readable media, as usedherein, may include machine readable instructions and/or program(s)regardless of the particular format or state of the machine readableinstructions and/or program(s) when stored or otherwise at rest or intransit.

The machine readable instructions described herein can be represented byany past, present, or future instruction language, scripting language,programming language, etc. For example, the machine readableinstructions may be represented using any of the following languages: C,C++, Java, C#, Perl, Python, JavaScript, HyperText Markup Language(HTML), Structured Query Language (SQL), Swift, etc.

As mentioned above, the example operations of FIGS. 10-13 may beimplemented using executable instructions (e.g., computer and/or machinereadable instructions) stored on one or more non-transitory computerand/or machine readable media such as optical storage devices, magneticstorage devices, an HDD, a flash memory, a read-only memory (ROM), a CD,a DVD, a cache, a RAM of any type, a register, and/or any other storagedevice or storage disk in which information is stored for any duration(e.g., for extended time periods, permanently, for brief instances, fortemporarily buffering, and/or for caching of the information). As usedherein, the terms non-transitory computer readable medium andnon-transitory computer readable storage medium is expressly defined toinclude any type of computer readable storage device and/or storage diskand to exclude propagating signals and to exclude transmission media.

“Including” and “comprising” (and all forms and tenses thereof) are usedherein to be open ended terms. Thus, whenever a claim employs any formof “include” or “comprise” (e.g., comprises, includes, comprising,including, having, etc.) as a preamble or within a claim recitation ofany kind, it is to be understood that additional elements, terms, etc.,may be present without falling outside the scope of the correspondingclaim or recitation. As used herein, when the phrase “at least” is usedas the transition term in, for example, a preamble of a claim, it isopen-ended in the same manner as the term “comprising” and “including”are open ended. The term “and/or” when used, for example, in a form suchas A, B, and/or C refers to any combination or subset of A, B, C such as(1) A alone, (2) B alone, (3) C alone, (4) A with B, (5) A with C, (6) Bwith C, or (7) A with B and with C. As used herein in the context ofdescribing structures, components, items, objects and/or things, thephrase “at least one of A and B” is intended to refer to implementationsincluding any of (1) at least one A, (2) at least one B, or (3) at leastone A and at least one B. Similarly, as used herein in the context ofdescribing structures, components, items, objects and/or things, thephrase “at least one of A or B” is intended to refer to implementationsincluding any of (1) at least one A, (2) at least one B, or (3) at leastone A and at least one B. As used herein in the context of describingthe performance or execution of processes, instructions, actions,activities and/or steps, the phrase “at least one of A and B” isintended to refer to implementations including any of (1) at least oneA, (2) at least one B, or (3) at least one A and at least one B.Similarly, as used herein in the context of describing the performanceor execution of processes, instructions, actions, activities and/orsteps, the phrase “at least one of A or B” is intended to refer toimplementations including any of (1) at least one A, (2) at least one B,or (3) at least one A and at least one B.

As used herein, singular references (e.g., “a”, “an”, “first”, “second”,etc.) do not exclude a plurality. The term “a” or “an” object, as usedherein, refers to one or more of that object. The terms “a” (or “an”),“one or more”, and “at least one” are used interchangeably herein.Furthermore, although individually listed, a plurality of means,elements or method actions may be implemented by, e.g., the same entityor object. Additionally, although individual features may be included indifferent examples or claims, these may possibly be combined, and theinclusion in different examples or claims does not imply that acombination of features is not feasible and/or advantageous.

FIG. 10 is a flowchart representative of example machine readableinstructions and/or example operations 1000 that may be executed and/orinstantiated by processor circuitry to associate access of media anddemographics of user(s) associated with device(s). The machine readableinstructions and/or the operations 1000 of FIG. 10 begin at block 1002,at which the watermark encoder 106 (FIG. 1 ) obtains media for watermarkencoding. For example, the interface circuitry 210 (FIG. 2 ) may obtainmedia from at least one of the media provider 102 (FIG. 1 ) or the AME104 (FIG. 1 ).

At block 1004, the watermark encoder 106 determines whether the media isscheduled to be accessed by device(s) after publishing of the media by amedia provider. For example, the media identification generatorcircuitry 220 (FIG. 2 ) may determine that the media is a linearprogram, RTVOD media, VOD media, etc., based on the media, or dataassociated with the media.

If, at block 1004, the watermark encoder 106 determines that the mediais not scheduled to be accessed by device(s) after publishing of themedia by a media provider, then, at block 1006, the watermark encoder106 encodes the media with dense watermarks to indicate the media isaccessed during a premiere of the media. For example, the densewatermark embedder circuitry 250 (FIG. 2 ) may embed the media with thedense single layer watermark 600 of FIG. 6 , the dense multilayerwatermark 620 of FIG. 6 , etc. In response to encoding the media withdense watermarks to indicate the media is accessed during a premier ofthe media at block 1006, control proceeds to block 1010 to determinewhether the encoded media is accessed by device(s).

If, at block 1004, the watermark encoder 106 determines that the mediais scheduled to be accessed by device(s) after publishing of the mediaby a media provider, control proceeds to block 1008 to encode the mediawith sparse watermarks to indicate the media is accessed within a timeperiod after publishing of the media. For example, in response to adetermination that the media is to be accessed within a first timeperiod after the publishing of the media (e.g., within three days of theinitial publishing of the media), the sparse watermark embeddercircuitry 260 (FIG. 2 ) may encode the media with the first sparsemultilayer watermark 700 of FIG. 7 . In some examples, in response to adetermination that the media is to be accessed within a second timeperiod after the publishing of the media (e.g., within seven days of theinitial publishing of the media), the sparse watermark embeddercircuitry 260 may encode the media with the second sparse multilayerwatermark 730 of FIG. 7 . An example process that may implement block1008 is described below in connection with FIG. 11 .

In response to encoding the media with sparse watermarks to indicate themedia is accessed within a time period after publishing of the media atblock 1008, the watermark decoders 124, 127 (FIG. 1 ) determine whetherthe encoded media is accessed by device(s) at block 1010. For example,the watermark detector circuitry 320 (FIG. 3 ) and/or the watermarkdetector circuitry 420 (FIG. 4 ) may determine that the encoded media isaccessed by the media presentation device 112 (FIG. 1 ) in response to adetection of a watermark.

If, at block 1010, the watermark decoders 124, 127 determine that theencoded media is not accessed by device(s), control proceeds to block1022 to determine whether to continue monitoring for access of encodedmedia by device(s). If, at block 1010, the watermark decoders 124, 127determine that the encoded media is accessed by device(s), then, atblock 1012, the watermark decoders 124, 127 extract watermarks fromaudio of the encoded media. For example, the watermark detectorcircuitry 320 and/or the watermark detector circuitry 420 may extractthe first sparse multilayer watermark 700 of FIG. 7 , the second sparsemultilayer watermark 730 of FIG. 7 , etc., from audio output of theaudio devices 132 (FIG. 1 ).

At block 1014, the watermark decoders 124, 127 identify symbol(s) atsymbol position(s) of the watermark. For example, the watermark detectorcircuitry 320 and/or the watermark detector circuitry 420 may identifythe first symbol 712 (FIG. 7 ) at the first symbol position of thesymbol positions 716 (FIG. 7 ), the second symbol 714 (FIG. 7 ) at thethird symbol position of the symbol positions 716, the third symbol 722(FIG. 7 ) at the fifth symbol position of the symbol positions 716,and/or the fourth symbol 724 (FIG. 7 ) at the eighth symbol position ofthe symbol positions 716.

At block 1016, the watermark decoders 124, 127 determine a time periodassociated with media access based on the symbol(s) at the symbolposition(s). For example, the timestamp determiner circuitry 350 (FIG. 3) and/or the timestamp determiner circuitry 450 (FIG. 4 ) may determinethat the media is accessed by the media presentation device 112 during afirst time period in response to a detection of the first symbol 712 atthe first symbol position, the second symbol 714 at the third symbolposition, etc. In some such examples, the timestamp determiner circuitry350 and/or the timestamp determiner circuitry 450 may determine that thedetection of the first symbol 712 at the first symbol position, thesecond symbol 714 at the third symbol position, etc., indicates a firstmedia state of the media (e.g., the media is accessed within three daysof an initial publishing of the media by the media provider 102).

At block 1018, the watermark decoders 124, 127 provide at least one ofthe media, the watermarks, or an indication of the time period to anaudience measurement entity. For example, the interface circuitry 310(FIG. 3 ) may transmit at least one of the media, the first sparsemultilayer watermark 700, or the first media state to the AME 104 viathe second network 110 (FIG. 1 ).

At block 1020, the AME 104 associates an access of the media anddemographic(s) of user(s) associated with device(s). For example, thedemographic associator circuitry 460 (FIG. 4 ) may generate anassociation (e.g., a data association) of the access of the media by themedia presentation device 112 and the demographic data 480 (FIG. 4 )that corresponds to a user (e.g., the panelist 116 (FIG. 1 )) associatedwith the media presentation device 112. In some such examples, thedemographic associator circuitry 460 may store the association in thedatastore 470 (FIG. 4 ). In some examples, the demographic associatorcircuitry 460 may invoke the interface circuitry 410 to provide theassociation, the demographic data 480, etc., to the media provider 102.In some examples, the media provider 102 may improve a media platform(e.g., hardware, software, and/or firmware of the media platform) basedon at least one of the association, the demographic data 480, etc.,because the at least one of the association, the demographic data 480,etc., may indicate areas of improvement on how to access the mediaplatform hosted by the media provider 102.

At block 1022, the watermark decoders 124, 127 determine whether tocontinue monitoring for access of encoded media by device(s). Forexample, the watermark detector circuitry 320 and/or the watermarkdetector circuitry 420 may determine whether another watermark isdetected at the monitored site 130. If, at block 1022, the watermarkdecoders 124, 127 determine to continue monitoring for access of encodedmedia by device(s), control returns to block 1010 to determine whetherencoded media is accessed by device(s), otherwise the example machinereadable instructions and/or the operations 1000 of FIG. 10 conclude.

FIG. 11 is a flowchart representative of example machine readableinstructions and/or example operations 1100 that may be executed and/orinstantiated by processor circuitry to encode media with sparsewatermarks to indicate the media is accessed within a time period afterpublishing of the media. In some examples, the machine readableinstructions and/or the operations 1100 of FIG. 11 may be executedand/or instantiated by processor circuitry to implement block 1008 ofFIG. 10 . The machine readable instructions and/or the operations 1100of FIG. 11 begin at block 1102, at which the watermark encoder 106determines whether the media is scheduled to be accessed by device(s)within a first time period after publishing. For example, the mediaidentification generator circuitry 220 (FIG. 2 ) may determine that themedia is to be accessed within three days after an initial publishing ofthe media by the media provider 102 (FIG. 1 ).

If, at block 1102, the watermark encoder 106 determines that the mediais not scheduled to be accessed by device(s) within a first time periodafter publishing, control proceeds to block 1112 to determine whetherthe media is to be accessed by device(s) within a second time periodafter publishing. If, at block 1102, the watermark encoder 106determines that the media is scheduled to be accessed by device(s)within a first time period after publishing, then, at block 1104, thewatermark encoder 106 selects a first symbol to be inserted at a firstsymbol position on a first encoding layer of a multilayered watermark.For example, the sparse watermark embedder circuitry 260 (FIG. 2 ) mayselect the first symbol 712 (FIG. 7 ) to be inserted at the first symbolposition of the symbol positions 716 (FIG. 7 ) on the first layer 702(FIG. 7 ) of the first sparse multilayer watermark 700 (FIG. 7 ). Insome such examples, the sparse watermark embedder circuitry 260 mayselect the second symbol 714 (FIG. 7 ) to be inserted at the thirdsymbol position of the symbol positions 716 on the first layer 702 ofthe first sparse multilayer watermark 700.

At block 1106, the watermark encoder 106 selects a second symbol to beinserted at a second symbol position on a second encoding layer of themultilayered watermark. For example, the sparse watermark embeddercircuitry 260 may select the third symbol 722 (FIG. 7 ) to be insertedat the fifth symbol position of the symbol positions 716 on the secondlayer 704 of the first sparse multilayer watermark 700. In some suchexamples, the sparse watermark embedder circuitry 260 may select thefourth symbol 724 (FIG. 7 ) to be inserted at the eighth symbol positionof the symbol positions 716 on the second layer 704 of the first sparsemultilayer watermark 700.

At block 1108, the watermark encoder 106 encodes the first symbol in amedia file at the first symbol position on the first encoding layer. Forexample, the sparse watermark embedder circuitry 260 may encode thefirst symbol 712 in the media at the first symbol position on the firstlayer 702. In some such examples, the sparse watermark embeddercircuitry 260 may encode the second symbol 714 in the media at the thirdsymbol position on the first layer 702. In some such examples, thesparse watermark embedder circuitry 260 may not include a symbol at thesecond, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, and/or eighth symbol position onthe first layer 702.

At block 1110, the watermark encoder 106 encodes the second symbol inthe media file at the second symbol position on the second encodinglayer. For example, the sparse watermark embedder circuitry 260 mayencode the third symbol 722 in the media at the fifth symbol position onthe second layer 704. In some such examples, the sparse watermarkembedder circuitry 260 may encode the fourth symbol 724 in the media atthe eighth symbol position on the second layer 704. In some suchexamples, the sparse watermark embedder circuitry 260 may not include asymbol at the first, second, third, fourth, sixth, and/or seventh symbolposition on the second layer 704.

At block 1112, the watermark encoder 106 determines whether the media isscheduled to be accessed by device(s) within a second time period afterpublishing. For example, the media identification generator circuitry220 may determine that the media is to be accessed within seventh daysafter an initial publishing of the media by the media provider 102.

If, at block 1112, the watermark encoder 106 determines that the mediais not scheduled to be accessed by device(s) within a second time periodafter publishing, control proceeds to block 1122 to determine whether tocontinue encoding the media file. If, at block 1112, the watermarkencoder 106 determines that the media is scheduled to be accessed bydevice(s) within a second time period after publishing, then, at block1114, the watermark encoder 106 selects a first symbol to be inserted ata third symbol position on a first encoding layer of a multilayeredwatermark. For example, the sparse watermark embedder circuitry 260 mayselect the fifth symbol 742 (FIG. 7 ) to be inserted at the fourthsymbol position of the symbol positions 716 on the first layer 702 ofthe second sparse multilayer watermark 730 (FIG. 7 ). In some suchexamples, the sparse watermark embedder circuitry 260 may select thesixth symbol 744 (FIG. 7 ) to be inserted at the seventh symbol positionof the symbol positions 716 on the first layer 702 of the second sparsemultilayer watermark 730.

At block 1116, the watermark encoder 106 selects a second symbol to beinserted at a fourth symbol position on a second encoding layer of themultilayered watermark. For example, the sparse watermark embeddercircuitry 260 may select the seventh symbol 752 (FIG. 7 ) to be insertedat the second symbol position of the symbol positions 716 on the secondlayer 704 of the second sparse multilayer watermark 730. In some suchexamples, the sparse watermark embedder circuitry 260 may select theeighth symbol 754 (FIG. 7 ) to be inserted at the sixth symbol positionof the symbol positions 716 on the second layer 704 of the second sparsemultilayer watermark 730.

At block 1118, the watermark encoder 106 encodes the first symbol in amedia file at the third symbol position on the first encoding layer. Forexample, the sparse watermark embedder circuitry 260 may encode thefifth symbol 742 in the media at the fourth symbol position on the firstlayer 702. In some such examples, the sparse watermark embeddercircuitry 260 may encode the sixth symbol 744 in the media at theseventh symbol position on the first layer 702. In some such examples,the sparse watermark embedder circuitry 260 may not include a symbol atthe first, second, third, fifth, sixth, and/or seventh symbol positionon the first layer 702.

At block 1120, the watermark encoder 106 encodes the second symbol inthe media file at the fourth symbol position on the second encodinglayer. For example, the sparse watermark embedder circuitry 260 mayencode the seventh symbol 752 in the media at the second symbol positionon the second layer 704. In some such examples, the sparse watermarkembedder circuitry 260 may encode the eighth symbol 754 in the media atthe sixth symbol position on the second layer 704. In some suchexamples, the sparse watermark embedder circuitry 260 may not include asymbol at the first, third, fourth, fifth, seventh, and/or eighth symbolposition on the second layer 704

At block 1122, the watermark encoder 106 determines whether to continueencoding the media file. For example, the media identification generatorcircuitry 220 (FIG. 2 ) may determine that the encoding of the mediafile is complete, or portion(s) of the media file is/are yet to beencoded. If, at block 1122, the watermark encoder 106 determines tocontinue encoding the media file, control returns to block 1102 todetermine whether the media is scheduled to be accessed by device(s)within a first time period after publishing. If, at block 1122, thewatermark encoder 106 determines not to continue encoding the mediafile, the example machine readable instructions and/or the operations1100 of FIG. 11 conclude. For example, the machine readable instructionsand/or the operations 1100 of FIG. 11 may return to block 1010 of themachine readable instructions and/or the operations 1000 of FIG. 10 todetermine whether the encoded media is accessed by device(s).

FIG. 12 is a flowchart representative of example machine readableinstructions and/or example operations 1200 that may be executed and/orinstantiated by processor circuitry to associate demographics of user(s)with accessed media based on at least one of media identifiers ortimestamps. The machine readable instructions and/or the operations 1200of FIG. 12 begin at block 1202, at which the watermark encoder 106 (FIG.1 ) obtains media for watermark encoding. For example, the interfacecircuitry 210 (FIG. 2 ) may obtain media from at least one of the mediaprovider 102 (FIG. 1 ) or the AME 104 (FIG. 1 ).

At block 1204, the watermark encoder 106 determines whether the media isscheduled to be accessed by device(s) after a premiere of the media. Forexample, the media identification generator circuitry 220 (FIG. 2 ) maydetermine that the media is a linear program, RTVOD media, library VODmedia, etc., based on the media, or data associated with the media. Insome such examples, the media identification generator circuitry 220 maydetermine that the media is on-demand media, such as RTVOD or libraryVOD media, in response to a determination that the media is to beaccessed after an initial publishing of the media on a media platformmanaged and/or otherwise hosted by the media provider 102.

If, at block 1204, the watermark encoder 106 determines that the mediais not scheduled to be accessed by device(s) after a premiere of themedia, then, at block 1206, the watermark encoder 106 encodes the mediawith single layer watermarks to convey at least one of media identifiers(IDs) or timestamps. For example, the dense watermark embedder circuitry250 (FIG. 2 ) may embed the media with the single-layer watermark 800(FIG. 8 ) to convey at least one of the media identifier 805 (FIG. 8 )or the timestamp 810 (FIG. 8 ). In response to encoding the media withsingle layer watermarks to convey at least one of media IDs ortimestamps at block 1206, control proceeds to block 1210 to determinewhether the encoded media is accessed by device(s).

If, at block 1204, the watermark encoder 106 determines that the mediais scheduled to be accessed by device(s) after a premiere of the media,control proceeds to block 1208 to encode the media with multilayerwatermarks to convey at least one of media IDs or timestamps. An exampleprocess that may implement block 1208 is described below in connectionwith FIG. 13 . In response to encoding the media with multilayerwatermarks to convey at least one of media IDs or timestamps at block1208, the watermark decoders 124, 127 (FIG. 1 ) determines whether theencoded media is accessed by device(s) at block 1210. For example, thewatermark detector circuitry 320 (FIG. 3 ) and/or the watermark detectorcircuitry 420 (FIG. 4 ) may determine that the encoded media is accessedby the media presentation device 112 (FIG. 1 ) in response to adetection of a watermark.

If, at block 1210, the watermark decoders 124, 127 determine that theencoded media is not accessed by device(s), control proceeds to block1220 to determine whether to continue monitoring for access of encodedmedia by device(s). If, at block 1210, the watermark decoders 124, 127determine that the encoded media is accessed by device(s), then, atblock 1212, the watermark decoders 124, 127 extract watermarks fromaudio of the encoded media. For example, the watermark detectorcircuitry 320 may extract the multilayer watermark 900 of FIG. 9 fromaudio output of the audio devices 132 (FIG. 1 ).

At block 1214, the watermark decoders 124, 127 identify at least one ofmedia IDs or timestamps based on the extracted watermarks. For example,the watermark detector circuitry 320 and/or the watermark detectorcircuitry 420 may identify the first symbols 902 (FIG. 9 ) on at leastone of the second frequency layer 514 (FIG. 5 ) or the fifth frequencylayer 518 (FIG. 5 ). In some such examples, the media identificationdeterminer circuitry 330 (FIG. 3 ) and/or the media identificationdeterminer circuitry 430 (FIG. 4 ) may identify the media identifier 910based on the first symbols 902. In some examples, the watermark detectorcircuitry 320 and/or the watermark detector circuitry 420 may identifythe second symbols 904 on the second frequency layer 514 and/or thethird symbols 906 on the fifth frequency layer 518. In some suchexamples, the timestamp determiner circuitry 350 (FIG. 3 ) and/or thetimestamp determiner circuitry 450 (FIG. 4 ) may identify the timestampmost significant bits and the parity bits 914 based on the secondsymbols 904 and the timestamp least significant bits 912 based on thethird symbols 906. In some such examples, the timestamp determinercircuitry 350 and/or the timestamp determiner circuitry 450 may identifythe timestamp based on a combination, aggregation, etc., of the mostsignificant bits and the least significant bits.

At block 1216, the watermark decoders 124, 127 provide at least one ofmedia identifiers or timestamps to an audience measurement entity. Forexample, the interface circuitry 310 (FIG. 3 ) may transmit at least oneof the media identifier 910 or the timestamp based on the timestampleast significant bits 912 and the timestamp most significant bits 914to the AME 104 via the second network 110 (FIG. 1 ).

At block 1218, the AME 104 associates demographics of user(s) with theaccessed media based on the at least one of the media IDs or thetimestamps. For example, the demographic associator circuitry 460 (FIG.4 ) may generate an association (e.g., a data association) of the accessof the media by the media presentation device 112 and the demographicdata 480 (FIG. 4 ) that corresponds to a user (e.g., the panelist 116(FIG. 1 )) associated with the media presentation device 112. In somesuch examples, the demographic associator circuitry 460 may store theassociation in the datastore 470 (FIG. 4 ). In some examples, thedemographic associator circuitry 460 may invoke the interface circuitry410 to provide the association, the demographic data 480, etc., to themedia provider 102.

At block 1220, the watermark decoders 124, 127 determine whether tocontinue monitoring for access of encoded media by device(s). Forexample, the watermark detector circuitry 320 and/or the watermarkdetector circuitry 420 may determine whether another watermark isdetected at the monitored site 130. If, at block 1220, the watermarkdecoders 124, 127 determine to continue monitoring for access of encodedmedia by device(s), control returns to block 1210 to determine whetherencoded media is accessed by device(s), otherwise the example machinereadable instructions and/or the operations 1200 of FIG. 12 conclude.

FIG. 13 is a flowchart representative of example machine readableinstructions and/or example operations 1300 that may be executed and/orinstantiated by processor circuitry to encode media with multilayerwatermarks to convey at least one of media identifiers or timestamps.The machine readable instructions and/or the operations 1300 of FIG. 13begin at block 1302, at which the watermark encoder 106 converts a firsttimestamp in time second format to a second timestamp in time minuteformat. For example, the timestamp generator circuitry 240 (FIG. 2 ) maydetermine timestamp_(minute) based on the example of Equation (1) above.

At block 1304, the watermark encoder 106 determines a first value basedon the second timestamp and a range of timestamps. For example, thetimestamp generator circuitry 240 may determine L2_(BASE) based on theexample of Equation (2) above.

At block 1306, the watermark encoder 106 may determine a second valuebased on the second timestamp, the first value, and the range oftimestamps. For example, the timestamp generator circuitry 240 maydetermine L5_(VAL) based on the example of Equation (3) above.

At block 1308, the watermark encoder 106 may generate a first bitsequence to be inserted into a first encoding layer of a multilayeredwatermark based on the second value. For example, the timestampgenerator circuitry 240 may convert L5_(VAL) into a first bit sequencethat includes the timestamp least significant bits 912 (FIG. 9 ). Insome such examples, at least one of the dense watermark embeddercircuitry 250 (FIG. 2 ) or the sparse watermark embedder circuitry 260(FIG. 2 ) may generate the third symbols 906 (FIG. 9 ) based on thetimestamp least significant bits 912.

At block 1310, the watermark encoder 106 determines a third value basedon a sum of the first value and the second value. For example, thetimestamp generator circuitry 240 may determine the third value based ona sum of L2_(BASE) and L5_(VAL).

At block 1312, the watermark encoder 106 determines parity bits based onan offset of a converted bit stream of the third value. For example, thetimestamp generator circuitry 240 may convert the third value into a bitstream. In some such examples, the timestamp generator circuitry 240 maydetermine the parity bits based on an offset of the bit stream by anoffset value. For example, the timestamp generator circuitry 240 maydetermine the parity bits based on the example of Equation (4) above.

At block 1314, the watermark encoder 106 generates a second bit sequenceto be inserted into a second encoding layer of the multilayeredwatermark based on the first value and the parity bits. For example, thetimestamp generator circuitry 240 may generate L2_(VAL) based on theexample of Equation (5) above. In some such examples, the at least oneof the dense watermark embedder circuitry 250 or the sparse watermarkembedder circuitry 260 may generate the second symbols 904 (FIG. 9 )based on the timestamp most significant bits and parity bits 914 (FIG. 9).

At block 1316, the watermark encoder 106 encodes the first bit sequencein media on the first encoding layer of the multilayered watermark. Forexample, at least one of the dense watermark embedder circuitry 250 orthe sparse watermark embedder circuitry 260 may encode the third symbols906 on the fifth frequency layer 518 of the multilayered watermark 900(FIG. 9 ).

At block 1318, the watermark encoder 106 encodes the second bit sequencein the media on the second encoding layer of the multilayered watermark.For example, at least one of the dense watermark embedder circuitry 250or the sparse watermark embedder circuitry 260 may encode the secondsymbols 904 on the second frequency layer 514 of the multilayeredwatermark 900.

In response to encoding the second bit sequence in the media on thesecond encoding layer of the multilayered watermark at block 1318, theexample machine readable instructions and/or the operations 1300 of FIG.13 conclude. For example, the machine readable instructions and/or theoperations 1300 of FIG. 13 may return to block 1210 of the machinereadable instructions and/or the operations 1200 of FIG. 12 to determinewhether the encoded media is accessed by device(s).

FIG. 14 is a block diagram of an example processor platform 1400structured to execute and/or instantiate the machine readableinstructions and/or the operations of FIGS. 10, 11, 12 , and/or 13 toimplement the watermark encoder 106 of FIGS. 1 and/or 2 . The processorplatform 1400 can be, for example, a server, a personal computer, aworkstation, a self-learning machine (e.g., a neural network), a mobiledevice (e.g., a cell phone, a smart phone, a tablet such as an iPad™),or any other type of computing device.

The processor platform 1400 of the illustrated example includesprocessor circuitry 1412. The processor circuitry 1412 of theillustrated example is hardware. For example, the processor circuitry1412 can be implemented by one or more integrated circuits, logiccircuits, FPGAs microprocessors, CPUs, GPUs, DSPs, and/ormicrocontrollers from any desired family or manufacturer. The processorcircuitry 1412 may be implemented by one or more semiconductor based(e.g., silicon based) devices. In this example, the processor circuitry1412 implements the media identification generator circuitry 220(identified by MEDIA ID GENERATOR CIRCUITRY), the source identificationgenerator circuitry 230 (identified by SOURCE ID GENERATOR CIRCUITRY),the timestamp generator circuitry 240, the dense watermark embeddercircuitry 250 (identified by DENSE WM EMBEDDER CIRCUITRY), and thesparse watermark embedder circuitry 260 (identified by SPARSE WMEMBEDDER CIRCUITRY) of FIG. 2 .

The processor circuitry 1412 of the illustrated example includes a localmemory 1413 (e.g., a cache, registers, etc.). The processor circuitry1412 of the illustrated example is in communication with a main memoryincluding a volatile memory 1414 and a non-volatile memory 1416 by a bus1418. In some examples, the bus 1418 may implement the bus 280 of FIG. 2. The volatile memory 1414 may be implemented by Synchronous DynamicRandom Access Memory (SDRAM), Dynamic Random Access Memory (DRAM),RAIVIBUS® Dynamic Random Access Memory (RDRAM®), and/or any other typeof RAM device. The non-volatile memory 1416 may be implemented by flashmemory and/or any other desired type of memory device. Access to themain memory 1414, 1416 of the illustrated example is controlled by amemory controller 1417.

The processor platform 1400 of the illustrated example also includesinterface circuitry 1420. The interface circuitry 1420 may beimplemented by hardware in accordance with any type of interfacestandard, such as an Ethernet interface, a USB interface, a Bluetooth®interface, an NFC interface, a PCI interface, and/or a PCIe interface.In this example, the interface circuitry 1420 implements the interfacecircuitry 210 of FIG. 2 .

In the illustrated example, one or more input devices 1422 are connectedto the interface circuitry 1420. The input device(s) 1422 permit(s) auser to enter data and/or commands into the processor circuitry 1412.The input device(s) 1422 can be implemented by, for example, an audiosensor, a microphone, a camera (still or video), a keyboard, a button, amouse, a touchscreen, a track-pad, a trackball, an isopoint device,and/or a voice recognition system.

One or more output devices 1424 are also connected to the interfacecircuitry 1420 of the illustrated example. The output device(s) 1424 canbe implemented, for example, by display devices (e.g., a light emittingdiode (LED), an organic light emitting diode (OLED), a liquid crystaldisplay (LCD), a cathode ray tube (CRT) display, an in-place switching(IPS) display, a touchscreen, etc.), a tactile output device, a printer,and/or speaker. The interface circuitry 1420 of the illustrated example,thus, typically includes a graphics driver card, a graphics driver chip,and/or graphics processor circuitry such as a GPU.

The interface circuitry 1420 of the illustrated example also includes acommunication device such as a transmitter, a receiver, a transceiver, amodem, a residential gateway, a wireless access point, and/or a networkinterface to facilitate exchange of data with external machines (e.g.,computing devices of any kind) by a network 1426. In some examples, thenetwork 1426 may implement the first network 108 of FIG. 1 . Thecommunication can be by, for example, an Ethernet connection, a digitalsubscriber line (DSL) connection, a telephone line connection, a coaxialcable system, a satellite system, a line-of-site wireless system, acellular telephone system, an optical connection, etc.

The processor platform 1400 of the illustrated example also includes oneor more mass storage devices 1428 to store software and/or data.Examples of such mass storage devices 1428 include magnetic storagedevices, optical storage devices, floppy disk drives, HDDs, CDs, Blu-raydisk drives, redundant array of independent disks (RAID) systems, solidstate storage devices such as flash memory devices and/or SSDs, and DVDdrives. In this example, the one or more mass storage devices 1428implement the datastore 270 of FIG. 2 , which includes the media 272,the identifiers 274, the timestamps 276, and the watermarks 278 of FIG.2 .

The machine executable instructions 1432, which may be implemented bythe machine readable instructions of FIGS. 10, 11, 12 , and/or 13, maybe stored in the mass storage device 1428, in the volatile memory 1414,in the non-volatile memory 1416, and/or on a removable non-transitorycomputer readable storage medium such as a CD or DVD.

FIG. 15 is a block diagram of an example processor platform 1500structured to execute and/or instantiate the machine readableinstructions and/or the operations of FIGS. 10 and/or 12 to implementthe first watermark decoder 124 of FIGS. 1 and/or 3 and/or the secondwatermark decoder 127 of FIGS. 1 and/or 3 . The processor platform 1500can be, for example, a server, a personal computer, a workstation, aself-learning machine (e.g., a neural network), a mobile device (e.g., acell phone, a smart phone, a tablet such as an iPad™), a personaldigital assistant (PDA), an Internet appliance, a DVD player, a CDplayer, a digital video recorder, a Blu-ray player, a gaming console, apersonal video recorder, a set top box, a headset (e.g., an augmentedreality (AR) headset, a virtual reality (VR) headset, etc.) or otherwearable device, or any other type of computing device.

The processor platform 1500 of the illustrated example includesprocessor circuitry 1512. The processor circuitry 1512 of theillustrated example is hardware. For example, the processor circuitry1512 can be implemented by one or more integrated circuits, logiccircuits, FPGAs microprocessors, CPUs, GPUs, DSPs, and/ormicrocontrollers from any desired family or manufacturer. The processorcircuitry 1512 may be implemented by one or more semiconductor based(e.g., silicon based) devices. In this example, the processor circuitry1512 implements the watermark detector circuitry 320, the mediaidentification determiner circuitry 330 (identified by MEDIA IDDETERMINER CIRCUITRY), the source identification determiner circuitry340 (identified by SOURCE ID DETERMINER CIRCUITRY), and the timestampdeterminer circuitry 350 of FIG. 3 .

The processor circuitry 1512 of the illustrated example includes a localmemory 1513 (e.g., a cache, registers, etc.). The processor circuitry1512 of the illustrated example is in communication with a main memoryincluding a volatile memory 1514 and a non-volatile memory 1516 by a bus1518. In some examples, the bus 1518 may implement the bus 380 of FIG. 3. The volatile memory 1514 may be implemented by SDRAM, DRAM, RDRAM®,and/or any other type of RAM device. The non-volatile memory 1516 may beimplemented by flash memory and/or any other desired type of memorydevice. Access to the main memory 1514, 1516 of the illustrated exampleis controlled by a memory controller 1517.

The processor platform 1500 of the illustrated example also includesinterface circuitry 1520. The interface circuitry 1520 may beimplemented by hardware in accordance with any type of interfacestandard, such as an Ethernet interface, a USB interface, a Bluetooth®interface, an NFC interface, a PCI interface, and/or a PCIe interface.In this example, the interface circuitry 1520 implements the interfacecircuitry 310 of FIG. 3 .

In the illustrated example, one or more input devices 1522 are connectedto the interface circuitry 1520. The input device(s) 1522 permit(s) auser to enter data and/or commands into the processor circuitry 1512.The input device(s) 1522 can be implemented by, for example, an audiosensor, a microphone, a camera (still or video), a keyboard, a button, amouse, a touchscreen, a track-pad, a trackball, an isopoint device,and/or a voice recognition system.

One or more output devices 1524 are also connected to the interfacecircuitry 1520 of the illustrated example. The output device(s) 1524 canbe implemented, for example, by display devices (e.g., an LED, an OLED,an LCD, a CRT display, an IPS display, a touchscreen, etc.), a tactileoutput device, a printer, and/or speaker. The interface circuitry 1520of the illustrated example, thus, typically includes a graphics drivercard, a graphics driver chip, and/or graphics processor circuitry suchas a GPU.

The interface circuitry 1520 of the illustrated example also includes acommunication device such as a transmitter, a receiver, a transceiver, amodem, a residential gateway, a wireless access point, and/or a networkinterface to facilitate exchange of data with external machines (e.g.,computing devices of any kind) by a network 1526. In some examples, thenetwork 1526 may implement the second network 110 of FIG. 1 . Thecommunication can be by, for example, an Ethernet connection, a DSLconnection, a telephone line connection, a coaxial cable system, asatellite system, a line-of-site wireless system, a cellular telephonesystem, an optical connection, etc.

The processor platform 1500 of the illustrated example also includes oneor more mass storage devices 1528 to store software and/or data.Examples of such mass storage devices 1528 include magnetic storagedevices, optical storage devices, floppy disk drives, HDDs, CDs, Blu-raydisk drives, RAID systems, solid state storage devices such as flashmemory devices and/or SSDs, and DVD drives. In this example, the one ormore mass storage devices 1528 implements the datastore 370 of FIG. 3 ,which includes the identifiers 374, the timestamps 376, and thewatermarks 378 of FIG. 3 .

The machine executable instructions 1532, which may be implemented bythe machine readable instructions of FIGS. 10 and/or 12 , may be storedin the mass storage device 1528, in the volatile memory 1514, in thenon-volatile memoryl516, and/or on a removable non-transitory computerreadable storage medium such as a CD or DVD.

FIG. 16 is a block diagram of an example processor platform 1600structured to execute and/or instantiate the machine readableinstructions and/or the operations of FIGS. 10 and/or 12 to implementthe AME 104 of FIGS. 1 and/or 4 . The processor platform 1600 can be,for example, a server, a personal computer, a workstation, aself-learning machine (e.g., a neural network), or any other type ofcomputing device.

The processor platform 1600 of the illustrated example includesprocessor circuitry 1612. The processor circuitry 1612 of theillustrated example is hardware. For example, the processor circuitry1612 can be implemented by one or more integrated circuits, logiccircuits, FPGAs microprocessors, CPUs, GPUs, DSPs, and/ormicrocontrollers from any desired family or manufacturer. The processorcircuitry 1612 may be implemented by one or more semiconductor based(e.g., silicon based) devices. In this example, the processor circuitry1612 implements the watermark detector circuitry 420, the mediaidentification determiner circuitry 430 (identified by MEDIA IDDETERMINER CIRCUITRY), the source identification determiner circuitry440 (identified by SOURCE ID DETERMINER CIRCUITRY), the timestampdeterminer circuitry 450, and the demographic associator circuitry 460of FIG. 4 .

The processor circuitry 1612 of the illustrated example includes a localmemory 1613 (e.g., a cache, registers, etc.). The processor circuitry1612 of the illustrated example is in communication with a main memoryincluding a volatile memory 1614 and a non-volatile memory 1616 by a bus1618. In some examples, the bus 1618 may implement the bus 490 of FIG. 4. The volatile memory 1614 may be implemented by SDRAM, DRAM, RDRAM®,and/or any other type of RAM device. The non-volatile memory 1616 may beimplemented by flash memory and/or any other desired type of memorydevice. Access to the main memory 1614, 1616 of the illustrated exampleis controlled by a memory controller 1617.

The processor platform 1600 of the illustrated example also includesinterface circuitry 1620. The interface circuitry 1620 may beimplemented by hardware in accordance with any type of interfacestandard, such as an Ethernet interface, a USB interface, a Bluetooth®interface, an NFC interface, a PCI interface, and/or a PCIe interface.In this example, the interface circuitry 1620 implements the interfacecircuitry 410 of FIG. 4 .

In the illustrated example, one or more input devices 1622 are connectedto the interface circuitry 1620. The input device(s) 1622 permit(s) auser to enter data and/or commands into the processor circuitry 1612.The input device(s) 1622 can be implemented by, for example, an audiosensor, a microphone, a camera (still or video), a keyboard, a button, amouse, a touchscreen, a track-pad, a trackball, an isopoint device,and/or a voice recognition system.

One or more output devices 1624 are also connected to the interfacecircuitry 1620 of the illustrated example. The output device(s) 1624 canbe implemented, for example, by display devices (e.g., an LED, an OLED,an LCD, a CRT display, an IPS display, a touchscreen, etc.), a tactileoutput device, a printer, and/or speaker. The interface circuitry 1620of the illustrated example, thus, typically includes a graphics drivercard, a graphics driver chip, and/or graphics processor circuitry suchas a GPU.

The interface circuitry 1620 of the illustrated example also includes acommunication device such as a transmitter, a receiver, a transceiver, amodem, a residential gateway, a wireless access point, and/or a networkinterface to facilitate exchange of data with external machines (e.g.,computing devices of any kind) by a network 1626. In some examples, thenetwork 1626 may implement the first network 108 and/or the secondnetwork 110 of FIG. 1 . The communication can be by, for example, anEthernet connection, a DSL connection, a telephone line connection, acoaxial cable system, a satellite system, a line-of-site wirelesssystem, a cellular telephone system, an optical connection, etc.

The processor platform 1600 of the illustrated example also includes oneor more mass storage devices 1628 to store software and/or data.Examples of such mass storage devices 1628 include magnetic storagedevices, optical storage devices, floppy disk drives, HDDs, CDs, Blu-raydisk drives, RAID systems, solid state storage devices such as flashmemory devices and/or SSDs, and DVD drives. In this example, the one ormore mass storage devices 1628 implements the datastore 470 of FIG. 4 ,which includes the media 472, the identifiers 474, the timestamps 476,the watermarks 478, and the demographic data 480 of FIG. 4 .

The machine executable instructions 1632, which may be implemented bythe machine readable instructions of FIGS. 10 and/or 12 , may be storedin the mass storage device 1628, in the volatile memory 1614, in thenon-volatile memory 1616, and/or on a removable non-transitory computerreadable storage medium such as a CD or DVD.

FIG. 17 is a block diagram of an example implementation of the processorcircuitry 1412 of FIG. 4 , the processor circuitry 1512 of FIG. 15 ,and/or the processor circuitry 1612 of FIG. 16 . In this example, theprocessor circuitry 1412 of FIG. 4 , the processor circuitry 1512 ofFIG. 15 , and/or the processor circuitry 1612 of FIG. 16 is implementedby a general purpose microprocessor 1700. The general purposemicroprocessor circuitry 1700 execute some or all of the machinereadable instructions of the flowcharts of FIGS. 10, 11, 12 , and/or 13to effectively instantiate the watermark encoder 106 of FIGS. 1 and/or 2, the first watermark decoder 124 of FIGS. 1 and/or 3 , the secondwatermark decoder 127 of FIGS. 1 and/or 3 , and/or the AME of FIGS. 1and/or 4 as logic circuits to perform the operations corresponding tothose machine readable instructions. For example, the microprocessor1700 may implement multi-core hardware circuitry such as a CPU, a DSP, aGPU, an XPU, etc. Although it may include any number of example cores1702 (e.g., 1 core), the microprocessor 1700 of this example is amulti-core semiconductor device including N cores. The cores 1702 of themicroprocessor 1700 may operate independently or may cooperate toexecute machine readable instructions. For example, machine codecorresponding to a firmware program, an embedded software program, or asoftware program may be executed by one of the cores 1702 or may beexecuted by multiple ones of the cores 1702 at the same or differenttimes. In some examples, the machine code corresponding to the firmwareprogram, the embedded software program, or the software program is splitinto threads and executed in parallel by two or more of the cores 1702.The software program may correspond to a portion or all of the machinereadable instructions and/or operations represented by the flowcharts ofFIGS. 10, 11, 12 , and/or 13.

The cores 1702 may communicate by a first example bus 1704. In someexamples, the first bus 1704 may implement a communication bus toeffectuate communication associated with one(s) of the cores 1702. Forexample, the first bus 1704 may implement at least one of an I2C bus, aSPI bus, a PCI bus, or a PCIe bus. Additionally or alternatively, thefirst bus 1704 may implement any other type of computing or electricalbus.

The cores 1702 may obtain data, instructions, and/or signals from one ormore external devices by example interface circuitry 1706. The cores1702 may output data, instructions, and/or signals to the one or moreexternal devices by the interface circuitry 1706. Although the cores1702 of this example include example local memory 1720 (e.g., Level 1(L1) cache that may be split into an L1 data cache and an L1 instructioncache), the microprocessor 1700 also includes example shared memory 1710that may be shared by the cores (e.g., Level 2 (L2_cache)) forhigh-speed access to data and/or instructions. Data and/or instructionsmay be transferred (e.g., shared) by writing to and/or reading from theshared memory 1710. The local memory 1720 of each of the cores 1702 andthe shared memory 1710 may be part of a hierarchy of storage devicesincluding multiple levels of cache memory and the main memory (e.g., themain memory 1414, 1416 of FIG. 14 , the main memory 1514, 1516 of FIG.15 , and/or the main memory 1614, 1616 of FIG. 16 ). Typically, higherlevels of memory in the hierarchy exhibit lower access time and havesmaller storage capacity than lower levels of memory. Changes in thevarious levels of the cache hierarchy are managed (e.g., coordinated) bya cache coherency policy.

Each core 1702 may be referred to as a CPU, DSP, GPU, etc., or any othertype of hardware circuitry. Each core 1702 includes control unitcircuitry 1714, arithmetic and logic (AL) circuitry (sometimes referredto as an ALU) 1716, a plurality of registers 1718, the L1 cache 1720,and a second example bus 1722. Other structures may be present. Forexample, each core 1702 may include vector unit circuitry, singleinstruction multiple data (SIMD) unit circuitry, load/store unit (LSU)circuitry, branch/jump unit circuitry, floating-point unit (FPU)circuitry, etc. The control unit circuitry 1714 includessemiconductor-based circuits structured to control (e.g., coordinate)data movement within the corresponding core 1702. The AL circuitry 1716includes semiconductor-based circuits structured to perform one or moremathematic and/or logic operations on the data within the correspondingcore 1702. The AL circuitry 1716 of some examples performs integer basedoperations. In other examples, the AL circuitry 1716 also performsfloating point operations. In yet other examples, the AL circuitry 1716may include first AL circuitry that performs integer based operationsand second AL circuitry that performs floating point operations. In someexamples, the AL circuitry 1716 may be referred to as an ArithmeticLogic Unit (ALU). The registers 1718 are semiconductor-based structuresto store data and/or instructions such as results of one or more of theoperations performed by the AL circuitry 1716 of the corresponding core1702. For example, the registers 1718 may include vector register(s),SIMD register(s), general purpose register(s), flag register(s), segmentregister(s), machine specific register(s), instruction pointerregister(s), control register(s), debug register(s), memory managementregister(s), machine check register(s), etc. The registers 1718 may bearranged in a bank as shown in FIG. 17 . Alternatively, the registers1718 may be organized in any other arrangement, format, or structureincluding distributed throughout the core 1702 to shorten access time.The second bus 1722 may implement at least one of an I2C bus, a SPI bus,a PCI bus, or a PCIe bus

Each core 1702 and/or, more generally, the microprocessor 1700 mayinclude additional and/or alternate structures to those shown anddescribed above. For example, one or more clock circuits, one or morepower supplies, one or more power gates, one or more cache home agents(CHAs), one or more converged/common mesh stops (CMSs), one or moreshifters (e.g., barrel shifter(s)) and/or other circuitry may bepresent. The microprocessor 1700 is a semiconductor device fabricated toinclude many transistors interconnected to implement the structuresdescribed above in one or more integrated circuits (ICs) contained inone or more packages. The processor circuitry may include and/orcooperate with one or more accelerators. In some examples, acceleratorsare implemented by logic circuitry to perform certain tasks more quicklyand/or efficiently than can be done by a general purpose processor.Examples of accelerators include ASICs and FPGAs such as those discussedherein. A GPU or other programmable device can also be an accelerator.Accelerators may be on-board the processor circuitry, in the same chippackage as the processor circuitry and/or in one or more separatepackages from the processor circuitry.

FIG. 18 is a block diagram of another example implementation of theprocessor circuitry 1412 of FIG. 14 , the processor circuitry 1512 ofFIG. 15 , and/or the processor circuitry 1612 of FIG. 16 . In thisexample, the processor circuitry 1412 of FIG. 14 , the processorcircuitry 1512 of FIG. 15 , and/or the processor circuitry 1612 of FIG.16 is implemented by FPGA circuitry 1800. The FPGA circuitry 1800 can beused, for example, to perform operations that could otherwise beperformed by the example microprocessor 1700 of FIG. 17 executingcorresponding machine readable instructions. However, once configured,the FPGA circuitry 1800 instantiates the machine readable instructionsin hardware and, thus, can often execute the operations faster than theycould be performed by a general purpose microprocessor executing thecorresponding software.

More specifically, in contrast to the microprocessor 1700 of FIG. 17described above (which is a general purpose device that may beprogrammed to execute some or all of the machine readable instructionsrepresented by the flowcharts of FIGS. 10, 11, 12 , and/or 13 but whoseinterconnections and logic circuitry are fixed once fabricated), theFPGA circuitry 1800 of the example of FIG. 18 includes interconnectionsand logic circuitry that may be configured and/or interconnected indifferent ways after fabrication to instantiate, for example, some orall of the machine readable instructions represented by the flowchartsof FIGS. 10, 11, 12 , and/or 13. In particular, the FPGA 1800 may bethought of as an array of logic gates, interconnections, and switches.The switches can be programmed to change how the logic gates areinterconnected by the interconnections, effectively forming one or morededicated logic circuits (unless and until the FPGA circuitry 1800 isreprogrammed). The configured logic circuits enable the logic gates tocooperate in different ways to perform different operations on datareceived by input circuitry. Those operations may correspond to some orall of the software represented by the flowcharts of FIGS. 10, 11, 12 ,and/or 13. As such, the FPGA circuitry 1800 may be structured toeffectively instantiate some or all of the machine readable instructionsof the flowcharts of FIGS. 10, 11, 12 , and/or 13 as dedicated logiccircuits to perform the operations corresponding to those softwareinstructions in a dedicated manner analogous to an ASIC. Therefore, theFPGA circuitry 1800 may perform the operations corresponding to the someor all of the machine readable instructions of FIGS. 10, 11, 12 , and/or13 faster than the general purpose microprocessor can execute the same.

In the example of FIG. 18 , the FPGA circuitry 1800 is structured to beprogrammed (and/or reprogrammed one or more times) by an end user by ahardware description language (HDL) such as Verilog. The FPGA circuitry1800 of FIG. 18 , includes example input/output (I/O) circuitry 1802 toobtain and/or output data to/from example configuration circuitry 1804and/or external hardware (e.g., external hardware circuitry) 1806. Forexample, the configuration circuitry 1804 may implement interfacecircuitry that may obtain machine readable instructions to configure theFPGA circuitry 1800, or portion(s) thereof. In some such examples, theconfiguration circuitry 1804 may obtain the machine readableinstructions from a user, a machine (e.g., hardware circuitry (e.g.,programmed or dedicated circuitry) that may implement an ArtificialIntelligence/Machine Learning (AI/ML) model to generate theinstructions), etc. In some examples, the external hardware 1806 mayimplement the microprocessor 1700 of FIG. 17 . The FPGA circuitry 1800also includes an array of example logic gate circuitry 1808, a pluralityof example configurable interconnections 1810, and example storagecircuitry 1812. The logic gate circuitry 1808 and interconnections 1810are configurable to instantiate one or more operations that maycorrespond to at least some of the machine readable instructions ofFIGS. 10, 11, 12 , and/or 13 and/or other desired operations. The logicgate circuitryl808 shown in FIG. 18 is fabricated in groups or blocks.Each block includes semiconductor-based electrical structures that maybe configured into logic circuits. In some examples, the electricalstructures include logic gates (e.g., And gates, Or gates, Nor gates,etc.) that provide basic building blocks for logic circuits.Electrically controllable switches (e.g., transistors) are presentwithin each of the logic gate circuitry 1808 to enable configuration ofthe electrical structures and/or the logic gates to form circuits toperform desired operations. The logic gate circuitry 1808 may includeother electrical structures such as look-up tables (LUTs), registers(e.g., flip-flops or latches), multiplexers, etc.

The interconnections 1810 of the illustrated example are conductivepathways, traces, vias, or the like that may include electricallycontrollable switches (e.g., transistors) whose state can be changed byprogramming (e.g., using an HDL instruction language) to activate ordeactivate one or more connections between one or more of the logic gatecircuitry 1808 to program desired logic circuits.

The storage circuitry 1812 of the illustrated example is structured tostore result(s) of the one or more of the operations performed bycorresponding logic gates. The storage circuitry 1812 may be implementedby registers or the like. In the illustrated example, the storagecircuitry 1812 is distributed amongst the logic gate circuitry 1808 tofacilitate access and increase execution speed.

The example FPGA circuitry 1800 of FIG. 18 also includes exampleDedicated Operations Circuitry 1814. In this example, the DedicatedOperations Circuitry 1814 includes special purpose circuitry 1816 thatmay be invoked to implement commonly used functions to avoid the need toprogram those functions in the field. Examples of such special purposecircuitry 1816 include memory (e.g., DRAM) controller circuitry, PCIecontroller circuitry, clock circuitry, transceiver circuitry, memory,and multiplier-accumulator circuitry. Other types of special purposecircuitry may be present. In some examples, the FPGA circuitry 1800 mayalso include example general purpose programmable circuitry 1818 such asan example CPU 1820 and/or an example DSP 1822. Other general purposeprogrammable circuitry 1818 may additionally or alternatively be presentsuch as a GPU, an XPU, etc., that can be programmed to perform otheroperations.

Although FIGS. 17 and 18 illustrate two example implementations of theprocessor circuitry 1412 of FIG. 14 , the processor circuitry 1512 ofFIG. 15 , and/or the processor circuitry 1612 of FIG. 16 , many otherapproaches are contemplated. For example, as mentioned above, modernFPGA circuitry may include an on-board CPU, such as one or more of theexample CPU 1820 of FIG. 18 . Therefore, the processor circuitry 1412 ofFIG. 14 , the processor circuitry 1512 of FIG. 15 , and/or the processorcircuitry 1612 of FIG. 16 may additionally be implemented by combiningthe example microprocessor 1700 of FIG. 17 and the example FPGAcircuitry 1800 of FIG. 18 . In some such hybrid examples, a firstportion of the machine readable instructions represented by theflowcharts of FIGS. 10, 11, 12 , and/or 13 may be executed by one ormore of the cores 1702 of FIG. 17 and a second portion of the machinereadable instructions represented by the flowcharts of FIGS. 10, 11, 12, and/or 13 may be executed by the FPGA circuitry 1800 of FIG. 18 .

In some examples, the processor circuitry 1412 of FIG. 14 , theprocessor circuitry 1512 of FIG. 15 , and/or the processor circuitry1612 of FIG. 16 may be in one or more packages. For example, theprocessor circuitry 1700 of FIG. 17 and/or the FPGA circuitry 1800 ofFIG. 18 may be in one or more packages. In some examples, an XPU may beimplemented by the processor circuitry 1412 of FIG. 14 , the processorcircuitry 1512 of FIG. 15 , and/or the processor circuitry 1612 of FIG.16 , which may be in one or more packages. For example, the XPU mayinclude a CPU in one package, a DSP in another package, a GPU in yetanother package, and an FPGA in still yet another package.

A block diagram illustrating an example software distribution platform1605 to distribute software such as the example machine readableinstructions 1432 of FIG. 14 , the example machine readable instructions1532 of FIG. 15 , and the example machine readable instructions 1632 ofFIG. 16 to hardware devices owned and/or operated by third parties isillustrated in FIG. 19 . The example software distribution platform 1905may be implemented by any computer server, data facility, cloud service,etc., capable of storing and transmitting software to other computingdevices. The third parties may be customers of the entity owning and/oroperating the software distribution platform 1905. For example, theentity that owns and/or operates the software distribution platform 1905may be a developer, a seller, and/or a licensor of software such as theexample machine readable instructions 1432 of FIG. 14 , the examplemachine readable instructions 1532 of FIG. 15 , and the example machinereadable instructions 1632 of FIG. 16 . The third parties may beconsumers, users, retailers, OEMs, etc., who purchase and/or license thesoftware for use and/or re-sale and/or sub-licensing. In the illustratedexample, the software distribution platform 1905 includes one or moreservers and one or more storage devices. The storage devices store themachine readable instructions 1432, 1532, 1632, which may correspond tothe example machine readable instructions 1000, 1100, 1200, 1300 ofFIGS. 10-13 , as described above. The one or more servers of the examplesoftware distribution platform 1905 are in communication with a network1910, which may correspond to any one or more of the Internet and/or anyof the example networks 108, 110, 1426, 1526, 1626 described above. Insome examples, the one or more servers are responsive to requests totransmit the software to a requesting party as part of a commercialtransaction. Payment for the delivery, sale, and/or license of thesoftware may be handled by the one or more servers of the softwaredistribution platform and/or by a third party payment entity. Theservers enable purchasers and/or licensors to download the machinereadable instructions 1432, 1532, 1632 from the software distributionplatform 1905. For example, the software, which may correspond to theexample machine readable instructions 1000, 1100, 1200, 1300 of FIGS.10-13 , may be downloaded to the example processor platform 1400, whichis to execute the machine readable instructions 1432 to implement thewatermark encoder 106 of FIGS. 1 and/or 2 . In some examples, thesoftware may be downloaded to the example processor platform 1500, whichis to execute the machine readable instructions 1532 to implement thefirst watermark decoder 124 of FIGS. 1 and/or 3 and/or the secondwatermark decoder 127 of FIGS. 1 and/or 3 . In some examples, thesoftware may be downloaded to the example processor platform 1600, whichis to execute the machine readable instructions to implement the AME 104of FIGS. 1 and/or 4 . In some example, one or more servers of thesoftware distribution platform 1905 periodically offer, transmit, and/orforce updates to the software (e.g., the example machine readableinstructions 1432, 1532, 1632 of FIGS. 14-16 ) to ensure improvements,patches, updates, etc., are distributed and applied to the software atthe end user devices.

From the foregoing, it will be appreciated that example systems,methods, apparatus, and articles of manufacture have been disclosed thatimprove watermark detection in acoustic environments. Disclosed systems,methods, apparatus, and articles of manufacture improve the efficiencyof using a computing device by adding hardware, software, and/orfirmware to detect sparse watermarks as disclosed herein. Disclosedsystems, methods, apparatus, and articles of manufacture improve theefficiency of using a computing device by adding hardware, software,and/or firmware to detect timestamps in multilayer watermarks asdisclosed herein. Disclosed systems, methods, apparatus, and articles ofmanufacture are accordingly directed to one or more improvement(s) inthe operation of a machine such as a computer or other electronic and/ormechanical device.

Example methods, apparatus, systems, and articles of manufacture toimprove watermark detection in acoustic environments are disclosedherein. Further examples and combinations thereof include the following:

Example 1 includes an apparatus comprising at least one memory,instructions in the apparatus, and processor circuitry to execute and/orinstantiate the instructions to encode a first symbol in a media file ata first symbol position on a first encoding layer of a multilayeredwatermark, and encode a second symbol in the media file at a secondsymbol position on a second encoding layer of the multilayeredwatermark, the first encoding layer and the second encoding layerincluding a plurality of symbol positions, one or more of the pluralityof the symbol positions on at least one of the first encoding layer orthe second encoding layer to be empty.

Example 2 includes the apparatus of example 1, wherein the processorcircuitry is to execute and/or instantiate the instructions to identifythe media file as scheduled to be accessed by a media device after apublishing of the media file by a media provider, and in response toidentifying the media file as scheduled to be accessed by the mediadevice within a first time period after the publishing of the mediafile, select the first symbol to be inserted at the first symbolposition and the second symbol to be inserted at the second symbolposition to identify an access of the media filed by the media devicewithin the first time period.

Example 3 includes the apparatus of example 2, wherein the processorcircuitry is to execute and/or instantiate the instructions to inresponse to identifying the media file as scheduled to be accessed bythe media device within a second time period after the publishing of themedia file select the first symbol to be inserted at a third symbolposition on the first encoding layer and the second symbol to beinserted at a fourth symbol position on the second encoding layer,encode the first symbol in the media file at the third symbol positionon the first encoding layer, and encode the second symbol in the mediafile at the fourth symbol position on the second encoding layer, one ormore of the plurality of the symbol positions on at least one of thefirst encoding layer or the second encoding layer to be empty.

Example 4 includes the apparatus of example 3, wherein the first timeperiod is within three days after the publishing of the media file andthe second time period is within seven days after the publishing of themedia file.

Example 5 includes the apparatus of example 2, wherein the publishing ofthe media file includes a television broadcast of the media file oravailability of the media file on a streaming media platform.

Example 6 includes the apparatus of example 1, wherein the processorcircuitry is to execute and/or instantiate the instructions to inresponse to an access of the media file by a media device, extract themultilayered watermark from audio of the media file, identify the firstsymbol at the first symbol position and the second symbol at the secondsymbol position, determine that the media file is accessed within afirst time period or a second time period after a publishing of themedia file by a media provider based on the first symbol at the firstsymbol position and the second symbol at the second symbol position, andprovide an indication to a server that the media file is accessed withinthe first time period or the second time period.

Example 7 includes the apparatus of example 6, wherein the processorcircuitry is to execute and/or instantiate the instructions to associatethe access of the media file and demographics of a user associated withthe meter based on the indication.

Example 8 includes at least one non-transitory computer readable storagemedium comprising instructions that, when executed, cause processorcircuitry to at least encode a first symbol in a media file at a firstsymbol position on a first encoding layer of a multilayered watermark,and encode a second symbol in the media file at a second symbol positionon a second encoding layer of the multilayered watermark, the firstencoding layer and the second encoding layer including a plurality ofsymbol positions, one or more of the plurality of the symbol positionson at least one of the first encoding layer or the second encoding layerto be empty.

Example 9 includes the at least one non-transitory computer readablestorage medium of example 8, wherein the instructions, when executed,cause the processor circuitry to identify the media file as scheduled tobe accessed by a media device after a publishing of the media file by amedia provider, and in response to identifying the media file asscheduled to be accessed by the media device within a first time periodafter the publishing of the media file, select the first symbol to beinserted at the first symbol position and the second symbol to beinserted at the second symbol position to identify an access of themedia filed by the media device within the first time period.

Example 10 includes the at least one non-transitory computer readablestorage medium of example 9, wherein the instructions, when executed,cause the processor circuitry to in response to identifying the mediafile as scheduled to be accessed by the media device within a secondtime period after the publishing of the media file select the firstsymbol to be inserted at a third symbol position on the first encodinglayer and the second symbol to be inserted at a fourth symbol positionon the second encoding layer, encode the first symbol in the media fileat the third symbol position on the first encoding layer, and encode thesecond symbol in the media file at the fourth symbol position on thesecond encoding layer, one or more of the plurality of the symbolpositions on at least one of the first encoding layer or the secondencoding layer to be empty.

Example 11 includes the at least one non-transitory computer readablestorage medium of example 10, wherein the first time period is withinthree days after the publishing of the media file and the second timeperiod is within seven days after the publishing of the media file.

Example 12 includes the at least one non-transitory computer readablestorage medium of example 9, wherein the publishing of the media fileincludes a television broadcast of the media file or availability of themedia file on a streaming media platform.

Example 13 includes the at least one non-transitory computer readablestorage medium of example 8, wherein the instructions, when executed,cause the processor circuitry to in response to an access of the mediafile by a media device, extract the multilayered watermark from audio ofthe media file, identify the first symbol at the first symbol positionand the second symbol at the second symbol position, determine that themedia file is accessed within a first time period or a second timeperiod after a publishing of the media file by a media provider based onthe first symbol at the first symbol position and the second symbol atthe second symbol position, and provide an indication to a server thatthe media file is accessed within the first time period or the secondtime period.

Example 14 includes the at least one non-transitory computer readablestorage medium of example 13, wherein the instructions, when executed,cause the processor circuitry to associate the access of the media fileand demographics of a user associated with the meter based on theindication.

Example 15 includes a method comprising encoding a first symbol in amedia file at a first symbol position on a first encoding layer of amultilayered watermark, and encoding a second symbol in the media fileat a second symbol position on a second encoding layer of themultilayered watermark, the first encoding layer and the second encodinglayer including a plurality of symbol positions, one or more of theplurality of the symbol positions on at least one of the first encodinglayer or the second encoding layer to be empty.

Example 16 includes the method of example 15, further includingidentifying the media file as scheduled to be accessed by a media deviceafter a publishing of the media file by a media provider, and inresponse to identifying the media file as scheduled to be accessed bythe media device within a first time period after the publishing of themedia file, selecting the first symbol to be inserted at the firstsymbol position and the second symbol to be inserted at the secondsymbol position to identify an access of the media filed by the mediadevice within the first time period.

Example 17 includes the method of example 16, further including inresponse to identifying the media file as scheduled to be accessed bythe media device within a second time period after the publishing of themedia file selecting the first symbol to be inserted at a third symbolposition on the first encoding layer and the second symbol to beinserted at a fourth symbol position on the second encoding layer,encoding the first symbol in the media file at the third symbol positionon the first encoding layer, and encoding the second symbol in the mediafile at the fourth symbol position on the second encoding layer, one ormore of the plurality of the symbol positions on at least one of thefirst encoding layer or the second encoding layer to be empty.

Example 18 includes the method of example 17, wherein the first timeperiod is within three days after the publishing of the media file andthe second time period is within seven days after the publishing of themedia file.

Example 19 includes the method of example 16, wherein the publishing ofthe media file includes a television broadcast of the media file oravailability of the media file on a streaming media platform.

Example 20 includes the method of example 15, further including inresponse to an access of the media file by a media device, extracting,with a meter, the multilayered watermark from audio of the media file,identifying, with the meter, the first symbol at the first symbolposition and the second symbol at the second symbol position,determining, with the meter, that the media file is accessed within afirst time period or a second time period after a publishing of themedia file by a media provider based on the first symbol at the firstsymbol position and the second symbol at the second symbol position, andproviding an indication to a server that the media file is accessedwithin the first time period or the second time period.

Example 21 includes the method of example 20, further includingassociating the access of the media file and demographics of a userassociated with the meter based on the indication.

Example 22 includes an apparatus comprising at least one memory,instructions in the apparatus, and processor circuitry to execute and/orinstantiate the instructions to encode a first bit sequence in a mediafile on a first encoding layer of a multilayered watermark, the firstbit sequence to include one or more first bits associated with atimestamp of the multilayered watermark, and encode a second bitsequence in the media file on a second encoding layer of themultilayered watermark, the second bit sequence to include (i) one ormore second bits associated with the timestamp and (ii) one or morethird bits.

Example 23 includes the apparatus of example 22, wherein the one or morethird bits are parity bits.

Example 24 includes the apparatus of example 22, wherein the processorcircuitry is to execute and/or instantiate the instructions to convertthe timestamp in a first format to a second format, the first formatbased on a number of seconds at which the multilayered watermark is tobe encoded in the media file, the second format based on a number ofminutes at which the multilayered watermark is to be encoded in themedia file, and convert the timestamp in the second format to a thirdbit sequence, the first bit sequence corresponding to one or more leastsignificant bits of the third bit sequence, the second bit sequencecorresponding to one or more most significant bits of the third bitsequence.

Example 25 includes the apparatus of example 22, wherein the processorcircuitry is to execute and/or instantiate the instructions to determinea first value based on the timestamp and a range of timestamps,determine a second value based on the timestamp, the first value, andthe range of timestamps, and convert the second value into the first bitsequence.

Example 26 includes the apparatus of example 25, wherein the processorcircuitry is to execute and/or instantiate the instructions to determinea third value based on a sum of the first value and the second value,convert the third value into a third bit sequence, and determine the oneor more third bits by shifting the third bit sequence by an offsetvalue.

Example 27 includes the apparatus of example 26, wherein the media fileis to be encoded with a plurality of multilayered watermarks withassociated timestamps, successive ones of the timestamps to beincremented at a minute level, the plurality of the multilayeredwatermarks including the multilayer watermark, the timestamps includingthe timestamp, and the processor circuitry is to execute and/orinstantiate the instructions to increment successive ones of theplurality of the timestamps at the minute level, and in response to theincrementing of the successive ones of the plurality of the timestamps,increment the first bit sequence and the second bit sequence ofrespective ones of the successive ones of the plurality of thetimestamps.

Example 28 includes the apparatus of example 25, wherein the processorcircuitry is to execute and/or instantiate the instructions to determinea third value based on a multiplication of the first value and a fourthvalue, determine a fifth value based on a sum of the third value and aparity value, the parity value to be converted into the one or morethird bits, and convert the fifth value into the one or more secondbits.

Example 29 includes at least one non-transitory computer readablestorage medium comprising instructions that, when executed, causeprocessor circuitry to at least encode a first bit sequence in a mediafile on a first encoding layer of a multilayered watermark, the firstbit sequence to include one or more first bits associated with atimestamp of the multilayered watermark, and encode a second bitsequence in the media file on a second encoding layer of themultilayered watermark, the second bit sequence to include (i) one ormore second bits associated with the timestamp and (ii) one or morethird bits.

Example 30 includes the at least one non-transitory computer readablestorage medium of example 29, wherein the one or more third bits areparity bits.

Example 31 includes the at least one non-transitory computer readablestorage medium of example 29, wherein the instructions, when executed,cause the processor circuitry to convert the timestamp in a first formatto a second format, the first format based on a number of seconds atwhich the multilayered watermark is to be encoded in the media file, thesecond format based on a number of minutes at which the multilayeredwatermark is to be encoded in the media file, and convert the timestampin the second format to a third bit sequence, the first bit sequencecorresponding to one or more least significant bits of the third bitsequence, the second bit sequence corresponding to one or more mostsignificant bits of the third bit sequence.

Example 32 includes the at least one non-transitory computer readablestorage medium of example 29, wherein the instructions, when executed,cause the processor circuitry to determine a first value based on thetimestamp and a range of timestamps, determine a second value based onthe timestamp, the first value, and the range of timestamps, and convertthe second value into the first bit sequence.

Example 33 includes the at least one non-transitory computer readablestorage medium of example 32, wherein the instructions, when executed,cause the processor circuitry to determine a third value based on a sumof the first value and the second value, convert the third value into athird bit sequence, and determine the one or more third bits by shiftingthe third bit sequence by an offset value.

Example 34 includes the at least one non-transitory computer readablestorage medium of example 33, wherein the media file is to be encodedwith a plurality of multilayered watermarks with associated timestamps,successive ones of the timestamps to be incremented at a minute level,the plurality of the multilayered watermarks including the multilayerwatermark, the timestamps including the timestamp, and the instructions,when executed, cause the processor circuitry to increment successiveones of the plurality of the timestamps at the minute level, and inresponse to the incrementing of the successive ones of the plurality ofthe timestamps, increment the first bit sequence and the second bitsequence of respective ones of the successive ones of the plurality ofthe timestamps.

Example 35 includes the at least one non-transitory computer readablestorage medium of example 32, wherein the instructions, when executed,cause the processor circuitry to determine a third value based on amultiplication of the first value and a fourth value, determine a fifthvalue based on a sum of the third value and a parity value, the parityvalue to be converted into the one or more third bits, and convert thefifth value into the one or more second bits.

Example 36 includes a method comprising encoding a first bit sequence ina media file on a first encoding layer of a multilayered watermark, thefirst bit sequence to include one or more first bits associated with atimestamp of the multilayered watermark, and encoding a second bitsequence in the media file on a second encoding layer of themultilayered watermark, the second bit sequence to include (i) one ormore second bits associated with the timestamp and (ii) one or morethird bits.

Example 37 includes the method of example 36, wherein the one or morethird bits are parity bits.

Example 38 includes the method of example 36, further includingconverting the timestamp in a first format to a second format, the firstformat based on a number of seconds at which the multilayered watermarkis to be encoded in the media file, the second format based on a numberof minutes at which the multilayered watermark is to be encoded in themedia file, and converting the timestamp in the second format to a thirdbit sequence, the first bit sequence corresponding to one or more leastsignificant bits of the third bit sequence, the second bit sequencecorresponding to one or more most significant bits of the third bitsequence.

Example 39 includes the method of example 36, further includingdetermining a first value based on the timestamp and a range oftimestamps, determining a second value based on the timestamp, the firstvalue, and the range of timestamps, and converting the second value intothe first bit sequence.

Example 40 includes the method of example 39, further includingdetermining a third value based on a sum of the first value and thesecond value, converting the third value into a third bit sequence, anddetermining the one or more third bits by shifting the third bitsequence by an offset value.

Example 41 includes the method of example 40, wherein the media file isto be encoded with a plurality of multilayered watermarks withassociated timestamps, successive ones of the timestamps to beincremented at a minute level, the plurality of the multilayeredwatermarks including the multilayer watermark, the timestamps includingthe timestamp, and further including incrementing successive ones of theplurality of the timestamps at the minute level, and in response to theincrementing of the successive ones of the plurality of the timestamps,incrementing the first bit sequence and the second bit sequence ofrespective ones of the successive ones of the plurality of thetimestamps.

Example 42 includes the method of example 39, further includingdetermining a third value based on a multiplication of the first valueand a fourth value, determining a fifth value based on a sum of thethird value and a parity value, the parity value to be converted intothe one or more third bits, and converting the fifth value into the oneor more second bits.

The following claims are hereby incorporated into this DetailedDescription by this reference. Although certain example systems,methods, apparatus, and articles of manufacture have been disclosedherein, the scope of coverage of this patent is not limited thereto. Onthe contrary, this patent covers all systems, methods, apparatus, andarticles of manufacture fairly falling within the scope of the claims ofthis patent.

What is claimed is:
 1. An apparatus comprising: at least one memory;instructions; and processor circuitry to execute and/or instantiate theinstructions to: identify a media file is scheduled to be accessed by amedia device within a first time period after the media file waspublished by a media provider; select a first symbol to be inserted at afirst symbol position and a second symbol to be inserted at a secondsymbol position to identify the media file is to be accessed by themedia device within the first time period, the first symbol position ina first bit sequence, the second symbol position in a second bitsequence; encode the first bit sequence in the media file on a firstencoding layer of a multilayered watermark, the first bit sequence toinclude one or more first bits associated with a timestamp of themultilayered watermark; and encode the second bit sequence in the mediafile on a second encoding layer of the multilayered watermark, thesecond bit sequence to include (i) one or more second bits associatedwith the timestamp and (ii) one or more third bits.
 2. The apparatus ofclaim 1, wherein the one or more third bits are parity bits.
 3. Theapparatus of claim 1, wherein the processor circuitry is to: convert thetimestamp from a first format to a second format, the first format basedon a number of seconds at which the multilayered watermark is to beencoded in the media file, the second format based on a number ofminutes at which the multilayered watermark is to be encoded in themedia file; and convert the timestamp from the second format to a thirdbit sequence, the first bit sequence corresponding to one or more leastsignificant bits of the third bit sequence, the second bit sequencecorresponding to one or more most significant bits of the third bitsequence.
 4. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the processor circuitryis to: determine a first value based on the timestamp and a range oftimestamps; determine a second value based on the timestamp, the firstvalue, and the range of timestamps; and convert the second value intothe first bit sequence.
 5. The apparatus of claim 4, wherein theprocessor circuitry is to: determine a third value based on a sum of thefirst value and the second value; convert the third value into a thirdbit sequence; and determine the one or more third bits by shifting thethird bit sequence by an offset value.
 6. The apparatus of claim 5,wherein the media file is to be encoded with a plurality of multilayeredwatermarks with associated timestamps, successive ones of the timestampsto be incremented at a minute level, the plurality of the multilayeredwatermarks including the multilayer watermark, the timestamps includingthe timestamp, and the processor circuitry is to: increment successiveones of the plurality of the timestamps at the minute level; andincrement the first bit sequence and the second bit sequence ofrespective ones of the successive ones of the plurality of thetimestamps.
 7. The apparatus of claim 4, wherein the processor circuitryis to: determine a third value based on a multiplication of the firstvalue and a fourth value; determine a fifth value based on a sum of thethird value and a parity value, the parity value to be converted intothe one or more third bits; and convert the fifth value into the one ormore second bits.
 8. At least one non-transitory computer readablestorage medium comprising instructions that, when executed, causeprocessor circuitry to at least: identify a media file is scheduled tobe accessed by a media device within a first time period after the mediafile was published by a media provider; select a first symbol to beinserted at a first symbol position and a second symbol to be insertedat a second symbol position to identify the media file is to be accessedby the media device within the first time period, the first symbolposition in a first bit sequence, the second symbol position in a secondbit sequence; encode the first bit sequence in the media file on a firstencoding layer of a multilayered watermark, the first bit sequence toinclude one or more first bits associated with a timestamp of themultilayered watermark; and encode the second bit sequence in the mediafile on a second encoding layer of the multilayered watermark, thesecond bit sequence to include (i) one or more second bits associatedwith the timestamp and (ii) one or more third bits.
 9. The at least onenon-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 8, wherein theone or more third bits are parity bits.
 10. The at least onenon-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 8, wherein theinstructions, when executed, cause the processor circuitry to: convertthe timestamp from a first format to a second format, the first formatbased on a number of seconds at which the multilayered watermark is tobe encoded in the media file, the second format based on a number ofminutes at which the multilayered watermark is to be encoded in themedia file; and convert the timestamp from the second format to a thirdbit sequence, the first bit sequence corresponding to one or more leastsignificant bits of the third bit sequence, the second bit sequencecorresponding to one or more most significant bits of the third bitsequence.
 11. The at least one non-transitory computer readable storagemedium of claim 8, wherein the instructions, when executed, cause theprocessor circuitry to: determine a first value based on the timestampand a range of time stamps; determine a second value based on thetimestamp, the first value, and the range of timestamps; and convert thesecond value into the first bit sequence.
 12. The at least onenon-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 11, wherein theinstructions, when executed, cause the processor circuitry to: determinea third value based on a sum of the first value and the second value;convert the third value into a third bit sequence; and determine the oneor more third bits by shifting the third bit sequence by an offsetvalue.
 13. The at least one non-transitory computer readable storagemedium of claim 12, wherein the media file is to be encoded with aplurality of multilayered watermarks with associated timestamps,successive ones of the timestamps to be incremented at a minute level,the plurality of the multilayered watermarks including the multilayerwatermark, the timestamps including the timestamp, and the instructions,when executed, cause the processor circuitry to: increment successiveones of the plurality of the timestamps at the minute level; andincrement the first bit sequence and the second bit sequence ofrespective ones of the successive ones of the plurality of thetimestamps.
 14. The at least one non-transitory computer readablestorage medium of claim 11, wherein the instructions, when executed,cause the processor circuitry to: determine a third value based on amultiplication of the first value and a fourth value; determine a fifthvalue based on a sum of the third value and a parity value, the parityvalue to be converted into the one or more third bits; and convert thefifth value into the one or more second bits.
 15. A method comprising:identifying a media file is scheduled to be accessed by a media devicewithin a first period of time after the media was published file by amedia provider; selecting a first symbol to be inserted at a firstsymbol position and a second symbol to be inserted at a second symbolposition to identify the media file is to be accessed by the mediadevice within the first time period, the first symbol position in afirst bit sequence, the second symbol position in a second bit sequence;encoding the first bit sequence in the media file on a first encodinglayer of a multilayered watermark, the first bit sequence to include oneor more first bits associated with a timestamp of the multilayeredwatermark; and encoding the second bit sequence in the media file on asecond encoding layer of the multilayered watermark, the second bitsequence to include (i) one or more second bits associated with thetimestamp and (ii) one or more third bits.
 16. The method of claim 15,wherein the one or more third bits are parity bits.
 17. The method ofclaim 15, further including: converting the timestamp from a firstformat to a second format, the first format based on a number of secondsat which the multilayered watermark is to be encoded in the media file,the second format based on a number of minutes at which the multilayeredwatermark is to be encoded in the media file; and converting thetimestamp from the second format to a third bit sequence, the first bitsequence corresponding to one or more least significant bits of thethird bit sequence, the second bit sequence corresponding to one or moremost significant bits of the third bit sequence.
 18. The method of claim15, further including: determining a first value based on the timestampand a range of timestamps; determining a second value based on thetimestamp, the first value, and the range of timestamps; and convertingthe second value into the first bit sequence.
 19. The method of claim18, further including: determining a third value based on a sum of thefirst value and the second value; converting the third value into athird bit sequence; and determining the one or more third bits byshifting the third bit sequence by an offset value.
 20. The method ofclaim 19, wherein the media file is to be encoded with a plurality ofmultilayered watermarks with associated timestamps, successive ones ofthe timestamps to be incremented at a minute level, the plurality of themultilayered watermarks including the multilayer watermark, thetimestamps including the timestamp, and further including: incrementingsuccessive ones of the plurality of the timestamps at the minute level;and incrementing the first bit sequence and the second bit sequence ofrespective ones of the successive ones of the plurality of thetimestamps.